[\OTHROCK 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


VACATION  CRUISING 


IN 


-  CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE 


AYS. 


BY 

J.   T.   ROTHROCK,   M.D., 

PROFESSOR   OF   BOTANY    IN   TUB   UNIVERSITY   OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 


"  In  brief,  I  may  say  that  we  have  had  somewhat  too  much  of  '  the 
gospel  of  work."     It  is  time  to  preach  the  gospel  of  relaxation." 

HERBERT  SPENCER,  New  York  Address. 


I L  LUSTRA  TED. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 
1884. 


Copyright,  1884,  by  J.  B.  LlPPlNCOTT  &  Co. 


TO 

MY     MOTHER 

THIS  LITTLE  VOLUME  IS 

AFFECTIONATELY     DEDICATED, 

IN   GRATEFUL   REMEMBRANCE  OF   HER    DEVOTION 

TO   THE  \VKLI.-HI  INO    AND    HAPPINESS 

OF   HER   CHILDREN. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  DESCRIPTION    OF  THE   YACHT,  AND    REASONS   FOR 
THE  CRUISE    ........      7 

II.  DOWN  THE  CHESAPEAKE  AND  UP  THE  JAMES  .        .15 

III.  DOWN  THE  JAMES  AND  UP  THE  CHESAPEAKE    .        .     50 

IV.  CRUISING  ON  THE  DELAWARE  RIVER  AND  BAY        .  166 
V.  WHO  SHOULD  Go  CRUISING 238 

VI.  To  WINTER-QUARTERS  IN  THE  CHOPTANK        .        .  245 


M315976 


VACATION   CRUISING 


IN 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

DESCRIPTION    OF    THE     YACHT,    AND    REASONS     FOR 
THE     CRUISE. 

THE  plan  of  spending  this  vacation  on  the 
water  grew  gradually,  and  at  last  commended 
itself  to  my  judgment,  because  it  was  cheap,  full 
of  health,  and  promised  as  complete  a  change  in 
mode  of  life  as  one  could  hope  to  obtain. 

Furthermore,  as  I  proposed  partly  utilizing 
the  ,time  by  such  natural  history  studies  and 
observations  as  would  not  consume  brain-power 
faster  than  it  was  created,  some  few  books,  a 
microscope,  plant-press,  and  paper  were  required. 

7 


8  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

These  conditions  were  most  fully  met  by  making 
a  small  yacht  my  means  of  conveyance,  my 
home,  and  my  laboratory.  It  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  study  was  far  from  being  the  primary 
object  of  the  cruise. 

To  carry  out  my  plan  a  strong,  nearly  new 
boat  was  purchased, — not  a  racing  yacht,  in  which 
everything  was  sacrificed  to  speed,  but  a  solid, 
"  well-fastened"  little  sloop,  whose  qualities  were 
safety  first,  comfort  second,  and  some  speed  at  the 
tail-end  of  a  long  list  of  good  points. 

This  boat,  originally  the  "  Varuna,"  of  Bridge- 
ton  (New  Jersey),  was  renamed  "  Martha,"  for 
reasons  which  were  entirely  satisfactory  to  my 
little  boys  (who  were  my  sailing  companions  part 
of  the  time)  and  to  myself.  The  custom-house 
papers  gave  thirty  feet  long,  eleven  feet  beam, 
and  three  and  a  half  feet  deep  as  the  dimensions 
of  the  little  craft.* 

*  Much  greater  depth  and  less  beam  in  proportion  to  length 
are  now  regarded  as  important  elements  of  safety,  and  doubtless 
truly  so ;  but  I  was  obliged  to  have  a  boat  whose  depth  would 
not  prevent  my  entering  harbors  where  I  particularly  desired  to 
go.  An  old  waterman  expressed  his  opinion  of  my  boat  by 
saying,  "  You  can't  drown  her." 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.         g 

No  more  sail  was  carried  than  was  absolutely 
required.  The  spars  were  shorter  and  stronger 
than  were  usual  in  sloops  of  her  size ;  and,  as 
further  security  against  a  capsize,  more  than  a 
ton  of  pig  iron  was  placed  and  fastened  as  low 
down  inside  as  we  could  get  it.  Six  hundred 
to  a  thousand,  pounds  more  outside  on  her  keel 
would  have  added  to  her  sailing  qualities,  though 
without  this  the  boat  gave  no  indication  of  un- 
steadiness. 

Before  the  vacation  began  every  seam  had  been 
most  carefully  gone  over  and  made  tight ;  the 
standing  rigging  was  newly  set  up,  and  every 
cord  of  the  running  rigging  was  either  new,  or  as 
good  as  new.  Our  ground  tackle  was  two  power- 
ful holding  anchors  and  plenty  of  manila  rope  to 
swing  to.  Cleats  and  reefing  gear  were  all  in  per- 
fect order.  Not  once  during  the  entire  summer 
were  we  endangered  or  incommoded  from  want 
of  preparation  of  anything  we  should  have  had 
ready,  but  which  was  not  ready. 

A  good  aneroid  barometer  held  a  place  so 
conspicuous  that  it  must  be  noticed,  and  thus  we 
were  left  without  excuse  if  not  forewarned  of 
coming  danger  by  storm.  Compass,  charts,  lead 


I0  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

and  line,  side-lights,  anchor-light,  and  cabin-light 
completed  the  details  that  contemplated  safety. 

Next  came  comfort.  First  of  all,  every  avenue 
to  the  cabin  was  guarded  by  wire  mosquito-net- 
ting,— so  well  guarded  that  we  absolutely  escaped 
all  torment  from  these  minute  flying  fiends.  We  al- 
ways kept  the  sliding  cabin  windows  open.  Hence 
we  had  the  full  benefit  by  day  and  by  night  of 
whatever  "  air  was  going."  The  "  bunks"  were 
large  enough  for  men  of  moderate  dimensions  to 
sleep  comfortably  in,  with  tossing  room  besides. 
The  rule  that  all  bedding  must  be  frequently  aired 
was  religiously  adhered  to. 

FOOD. — Canned  corn,  tomatoes,  and  baked 
beans,  with  rice,  oatmeal,  prunes,  good  pilot-bread, 
ham  and  the  best  breakfast  bacon,  tea,  coffee, 
and  sugar,  I  purchased  for  the  season  at  wholesale 
price.  Fresh  fruits  and  meats  were  obtained  as 
required.  If  there  was  lack  of  luxurious  living, 
there  was  no  want  of  nutritious  plain  food.  The 
medicine-case  was  well  supplied, — not  that  it  was 
needed  much  for  the  inmates  of  the  boat,  but 
because,  in  the  out-of-the-way  places  where  we 
went,  it  often  enabled  me  to  relieve  some  suffering 
fellow.  There  is  a  comfort  in  giving  help  without 


CHESAPEAKE   AND   DELAWARE  BAYS.       u 

hope  of  reward,  or  without  possibility  of  it,  save 
such  mental  approval  as  a  pure  charity  brings  to 
the  giver.  A  little  of  this  does  go  a  long,  long 
way  into  after-life,  softening  one's  own  sorrows, 
and  brightening  his  own  joys.  Hence,  then,  by 
all  means,  a  medicine-chest. 

Another  most  important  article  was  added — 
a  small,  cheap  camera  for  dry-plate  photogra- 
phy. One  may  now  be  had  at  a  price  which 
is  within  reach  of  every  tourist,  and  nothing  is 
easier  than  to  become  an  adept  in  the  use  of  the 
instrument.  Let  me  suggest,  however,  that  each 
tourist  contemplating  a  prolonged  trip  purchase 
enough  plates  at  once  for  his  use,  and  that  he 
fairly  test  their  sensitiveness  before  leaving  his 
base  of  supplies.  I  have  no  complaints  to  make 
because  a  large  proportion  of  the  plates  of  a  well- 
known  dealer  failed  to  give  the  results  I  had 
anticipated,  and  which  I  had  always  obtained 
before  from  his  supplies.  The  fault  was  my  own, 
that  I  had  not  tried  the  lot  before  starting  out. 
We  can  hardly  as  yet  guess  how  important  a 
factor  this  amateur  photography  is  to  be  in  the 
book-making  of  the  future.  Neither  can  we  meas- 
ure its  possible  influence  in  opening  minds  to  the 


12  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

quiet  beauty  or  the  sublime  grandeur  which  our 
land  everywhere  possesses.  To  judge  what  its 
possible  effect  may  be  a  century  hence,  study 
what  it  has  already  done  for  men — and  women 
too — who,  before  they  became  amateurs,  had  no 
appreciation  of  the  fact  that  a  tree  or  a  rock  could 
have  either  individuality  or  attractiveness.  With- 
out wishing  to  be  over-enthusiastic,  or  be  re- 
garded as  filled  with  the  zeal  of  a  neophyte,  I 
can  hardly  avoid  counting  this  art  in  as  one  of  the 
humanizing  forces  of  the  times. 

READING  MATTER. — What  so  good  as  some  of 
Kingsley's  writings  ?  Real  enough  to  charm  and 
invigorate  the  mind,  suggestive  enough  to  open 
whole  realms  to  any  student  who  has  the  capacity 
for  observation  or  for  generalization,  yet  without 
the  details  with  which  some  authors  drag  their 
readers  down  to  the  level  of  those  everlasting 
figures.  There  is  a  mental  condition  which  grows 
out  of  constantly  contemplating  ratio  and  per- 
centage which  is  dangerous,  because  the  victim 
always  fails  to  note  that  the  sunshine  is  leaving 
his  soul,  and  that,  as  his  facts  and  his  averages  pile 
themselves  higher  and  higher,  his  own  inner  self 
is  being  dwarfed.  Who  of  all  writers  could  so  fitly 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS.       i$ 

fill  the  little  space  left  for  reading  matter  as 
Charles  Kingsley  ?  Of  course  there  were,  besides, 
the  ordinary  scientific  and  yachting  manuals. 

One  more  element  remained  to  be  considered, 
which,  if  not  under  the  head  of  comfort,  comes 
under  the  more  important  one  of  health, — I  mean 
cleanliness.  Nothing  so  disturbs  rest  as  the 
thought  that  as  one  sleeps  visitors,  demons  of 
the  night,  children  of  filth,  are  feasting  upon  his 
blood;  or  that  some  disease-germ,  vigorous  in 
the  absence  of  fumigation,  is  nursing  in  his  veins 
a  progeny  that  shall  work  him  unknown  harm. 
This  bar  to  bliss  when  cruising  is  often  intimately 
associated  with  a  hired  vessel.  But  then  there 
could  be  no  excuse  for  it  on  board  one's  own 
yacht,  so  I  determined  that,  inside  and  out,  the 
vessel  should  be  cleaned  every  day.  This  rule 
was  observed  during  the  entire  cruise,  save  for 
two  weeks  very  early  in  the  season.  The  yacht 
was  also  pumped  out,  washed  out,  and  fumigated 
on  the  least  suspicion  that  anything  might  be 
wrong,  or  on  the  bare  idea  that  peace  of  mind  or 
health  of  body  could  be  in  the  least  degree  sub- 
served by  any  additional  precaution. 

And  now, — 


14  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

"  Over  the  rail 

My  hand  I  trail, 
Within  the  shadow  of  the  sail ; 

A  joy  intense, 

The  cooling  sense 
Glides  down  my  drowsy  indolence." — Drifting. 


NOTE. — During  the  summer  I  had  the  pleasure  of  having 
with  me,  each  for  a  short  time,  the  following  gentlemen :  Messrs. 
George  Johnson,  William  Butler,  Jr.,  James  Sellers,  Professor 
G.  M.  Philips,  and  Mr.  James  Bull.  My  two  little  boys  were 
with  me  several  weeks.  So  that  not  the  least  among  the  de- 
lights of  yachting  is  the  privilege  of  having  friends  share  what- 
ever of  pleasure  there  may  be  in  it. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


CHAPTER    II. 

DOWN  THE  CHESAPEAKE  AND  UP  THE  JAMES. 

FRIDAY  afternoon,  June  9,  I  met  the  "  Martha" 
at  Delaware  City,  whence  we  were  to  go  through 
the  canal  to  the  Chesapeake  Bay.  Of  course  it 
was  an  unlucky  day  on  which  to  begin  a  long 
trip,  though  I  am  bound  to  declare  that,  looking 
back  on  the  events  of  the  cruise,  I  do  not  see 
just  where  the  misfortunes  came  in.  The  day  was 
exceedingly  warm,  and  a  dead  calm  rested  upon 
the  waters.  The  glare  of  the  sun  was  almost 
intolerable  to  the  eyes ;  though  I  must  say  here 
that  this  intolerance  of  the  bright  reflection 
ceased  in  a  few  days. 

The  hours  from  ten,  when  I  reached  the  place, 
until  three,  when  the  yacht  came  into  the  lock, 
passed  away  very  slowly.  The  local  industry 
which  appeared  to  be  most  thriving  at  that  time 
was  sturgeon-catching.  Two  or  three  antiquated 
river  sloops  and  schooners  lay  alongside  the  wharf. 


!6  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

The  odor  arising  from  them  told  plainly  enough 
what  their  vocation  was.  But  the  crews  of  these 
sturgeon-boats  revealed  most  unexpectedly  a 
fondness  for  the  beautiful.  The  air  of  the  town 
was  filled  with  the  perfume  of  roses,  which 
were  then  blooming  in  profusion.  Sturdy,  oil- 
odored  sturgeon-fishermen  wandered  through  the 
town  with  huge  clusters  of  roses,  giving  you  as 
they  passed  the  mingled  perfume  of  the  rose  and 
the  fish  in  the  same  inhalation.  This  unlooked- 
for  susceptibility,  however,  was  not  so  strange 
as  it  was  to  discover  that  the  place  where  the 
roses  came  from  was  a  bar-room  filled  with  a 
noisy  crowd.  The  roses  and  the  rye  were  dis- 
pensed over  the  same  bar. 

The  "Martha"  entered  the  lock  at  Delaware 
City,  as  has  been  said,  at  three  in  the  afternoon. 
By  four  we  were  hitched  on  to  the  steam-tug 
"Swallow,"  and  long  before  dark  were  through 
the  canal.  When  constructed,  this  canal  must 
have  been  one  of  the  great  internal  improve- 
ments of  that  age.  The  wonder  is,  however, 
that  in  spite  of  it  Baltimore  did  not  filch  away 
from  Philadelphia  more  of  the  grain  crop  which 
was  grown  on  the  Pennsylvania  hill-sides.  It  is 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       ij 

doubtless  well  known  who  the  moving  spirits  of 
the  enterprise  were,  and  also  what  their  object 
was  in  cutting  the  State  of  Delaware  through. 
One  can  readily  understand  how,  in  the  interest 
of  its  great  city,  Pennsylvania  could  well  afford 
to  have  made  the  canal,  if  necessary,  in  order 
that  her  own  grain  crop  at  least  might  be  handled 
in  and  exported  from  her  own  chief  port,  rather 
than  to  have  gone  abroad  from  another  State. 

As  a  rule,  there  is  no  inspiration  in  canal  navi- 
gation, or  certainly  few  people  find  it.  For  all  this 
it  was  a  really  enjoyable  trip  across  from  bay 
to  bay.  Our  transit  was  made  in  the  delicious 
cool  of  the  evening,  after  a  frightfully  hot  day. 
The  adjectives  used  are  strictly  intentional  and 
premeditated,  for  the  sufficient  reason  that  they 
express  more  truly  than  figures  can  how  the 
noonday  and  the  evening  temperature  affected  us. 
I  do  not  know  where  the  mercury  would  have 
stood,  because  I  never  carry  a  thermometer  when 
on  a  Southern  cruise  in  summer,  for  it  is  simply 
exasperating  to  know  just  how  much  heat  we  are 
enduring.  It  is  far  more  comfortable  not  to  have 
the  exact  figures ;  they  always  intensify  the  sun's 

rays.     In  the  canal  we  enjoyed  the  scenery  and 
b  2* 


I  $  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  rich  perfume  from  the  magnolia  and  the  fox- 
grape.  I  would  really  quite  like  to  spend  a  week 
in  working  (botanizing)  along  the  banks  of  the 
canal.  There  is  a  luxuriant,  and  apparently  a 
very  varied,  flora  in  the  region. 

On  Saturday  morning  our  patience  was  almost 
exhausted  before  we  were  taken  in  tow  by  the  tug 
for  the  Elk  River.  The  master  of  the  tug  did  not 
care  to  venture  out  so  long  as  the  fog  remained 
dense.  Probably  he  was  entirely  right,  because 
until  eight  o'clock  objects  distant  more  than  a 
hundred  yards  were  shut  out  from  view ;  though 
the  captain  of  a  large  Crisfield  schooner  did  not 
think  so,  and,  hoisting  his  sails,  he  started  to 
work  his  way  down  to  the  Elk.  However, — 
"luck  in  leisure-," — we  passed  him  very  soon 
when  the  tug  did  start. 

As  we  entered  the  Elk  the  fog  cleared  away 
entirely,  and  the  glorious  water  view  opened 
before  us  to  the  southward.  I  never  look  from 
above  the  Bohemian  River  down  toward  the  bay 
that  this  panorama  does  not  impress  me.  It 
does  so  more  and  more  the  oftener  I  look  at  and 
enjoy  it.  To  the  south  there  is  no  visible  limit. 
The  bold,  timber-covered  bluffs  east  or  west,  with 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       ig 

navigable  rivers  coming  in  between,  run  so  that 
the  horizon  widens  as  one  looks  south.  It  is  a 
scene  characterized  neither  by  grandeur  nor  yet 
by  quiet  beauty  alone.  The  combination  of 
water,  of  plains,  and  of  hills  in  just  the  proper 
proportion  is  what  completes  this  perfect  picture, 
— so  perfect,  too,  that  each  season  brings  its  own 
special  beauty  to  the  view.  Back  from  the  ^vater 
a  little  distance,  on  higher  ground,  may  be  seen 
the  comfortable  houses  of  the  farmers.  Without 
indicating  the  presence  pf  great  wealth,  the  whole 
appearance  of  the  region  is  one  of  thrift  and 
abundance.  There  is  no  sign  of  the  "  take-it-as- 
it-comes"  spirit  which  is  so  common  south  of  An- 
napolis ;  the  air  of  the  place  rather  speaks,  "  Make 
the  most  of  it."  Turkey  Point,  high  and  timber- 
clad,  the  location  of  an  important  light-house, 
stands  like  a  sentinel  between  the  Elk  and  the 
wide,  shoal  mouth  of  the  Susquehanna  River. 

Probably  one  should  say  as  little  harsh  in  char- 
acter about  wind  or  weather  as  possible  when 
cruising,  for  he  can  alter  neither  one  nor  the 
other;  neither  does  it  indicate  a  well-ordered 
mind  to  find  fault  with  that  which  cannot  be 
helped,  and  which,  even  if  we  could  alter,  would 


20  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

probably  be  the  worse  for  the  interference.  Still, 
as  a  simple  inquiry,  it  may  be  allowed  us  to  ask, 
— how  many  days  of  the  summer  season  does  the 
southern-bound  navigator  find  head-winds  to  con- 
tend with  on  the  upper,  or  indeed  the  whole, 
Chesapeake  Bay? 

By  four  in  the  afternoon  we  entered  what  is 
known  to  fishermen,  oystermen,  and  others  of 
aquatic  tastes  as  Still  Pond  Harbor.  It  lies  just 
south  of  where  the  Sassafras  River  empties,  or 
rather  opens,  into  the  Chesapeake.  That  which 
is  taken  for  the  harbor  generally  is  but  a  deep 
indentation  or  bay  opening  to  the  west,  and 
hence,  with  a  wind  from  the  same  direction,  is 
merely  a  trap  from  which  there  can  be  hardly  an 
escape,  and  in  which  one  must  ride  out  a  sea 
backed  by  the  width  of  the  bay.  In  the  October 
gale,  some  years  ago,  there  were  several  "  oyster- 
pungies"  lost  in  this  very  harbor;  so,  at  least,  I 
was  informed.  I  had  good  reason  for  knowing 
that  there  was  one  such  unfortunate  there  as  late 
as  1879,  for,  entering  the  harbor  about  dark  in 
the  evening  with  the  schooner  "  Alice  M.,"  we 
struck  fairly  upon  the  wreck, — fortunately  for  us, 
however,  with  no  evil  results.  Not  a  sign  marked 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       2l 

the  presence  of  this  dangerous  obstacle  save  the 
"  wake"  or  ripple  made  by  the  wreck  itself. 

The  Still  Pond  is  an  offshoot  or  an  inland  pro- 
longation of  the  harbor,  and  with  which  it  is  con- 
nected by  an  inlet  say  seventy  feet  wide  and  twice 
or  thrice  as  long.  That  we  found  it  and  came 
to  anchor  in  it,  as  but  few  yachtsmen  do,  I  am 
indebted  entirely  to  the  sagacity  and  the  pluck 
of  "  Lew,"  to  whom,  by  the  way,  I  have  not  yet 
introduced  the  reader. 

"  Lew"  is  a  comely,  open-hearted  yachtsman, 
of  say  twenty-one,  whom  I  was  fortunate  enough 
to  secure  as  assistant  before  I  left  the  Delaware. 
He  is  experienced,  companionable,  and  trust- 
worthy; and  I  can  only  hope  that  in  future  I 
may  never  meet  with  a  worse  man  or  a  less  re- 
liable man  than  Lewis  Seaman.  It  was  through 
him,  as  I  have  said,  that  we  found  the  way  into 
Still  Pond.  I  had  been  in  the  harbor  before,  and 
had  not  found  the  pond.  He  had  not  been  there 
before,  but  did  find  it.  That  is  just  the  difference. 
He  noticed  the  inlet  and  saw  how  rapidly  the  tide 
ran  out,  and  at  once  reasoned  there  must  be  a 
large  body  of  water  behind  the  inlet  to  force  a 
current  through  with  such  velocity. 


22       ,  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

So  we  headed  for  the  inlet,  and  gradually  saw 
how  it  increased  in  size  as  we  approached,  until, 
when  in  its  mouth,  the  pond  opened  to  our  view ; 
but  the  current,  which  suggested  the  pond,  well- 
nigh  prevented  our  reaching  it.  The  wind  died 
away  as  we  approached  the  inlet,  and  when  we 
were  in  it,  ceased  entirely.  So  the  anchor  was 
dropped,  and  then  "  Lew,"  taking  a  rope  over  his 
shoulder,  went  ashore.  I  hoisted  the  anchor  on 
board,  and  "  Lew"  towed  the  yacht  through  into 
the  mouth  of  the  pond.  East  and  west  the  land- 
locked, beautiful  pond  spread  out  before  us. 
Every  one  who  is  fond  of  the  water  has  some 
ideal  harbor  which  suggests  perfect  safety,  easy 
landing  on  attractive  shores,  and  what  more 
each  must  add  for  himself  to  complete  the  pic- 
ture. To  me,  when  longing  for  a  week  on  the 
water,  this  one,  Still  Pond,  is  ever  uppermost  in 
my  mind.  I  often  plan  a  whole  vacation  spent 
there.  There  is  room  enough  for  a  large  fleet  in 
the  pond,  but,  unfortunately,  the  bar  across  the 
mouth  prevents  vessels  drawing  more  than  three 
feet  of  water  from  entering.  My  chart  shows  on 
the  southern  shore  of  the  harbor  another  arm, 
much  like  this  on  the  north,  but  I  have  never 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       2$ 

explored  it.  In  the  interest  of  humanity,  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  means  may  be  taken  to  deepen  the 
channel  into  this  Still  Pond ;  for  it  is  doubly  hard 
that  men  should  perish,  as  in  that  October  gale, 
when  there  is  an  absolutely  secure  anchorage  in 
full  sight. 

Considered  from  another  stand-point,  this  place 
is  one  of  those  glorious  surprises  which  so  often 
strike  a  person  cruising  in  the  Chesapeake.  Not 
only  did  the  beauty  of  the  spot  take  possession 
of  me  as  soon  as  it  was  disclosed,  but  within 
half  an  hour  after  we  had  dropped  anchor,  Lew's 
net  had  caught  all  the  fish  we  needed  for  supper. 
Had  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  here  instead  of 
where  they  did,  it  is  doubtful  whether  their  piety 
and  importance  would  have  allowed  them  to  stop 
short  of  the  belief  that  a  spot  so  delightful  and 
so  prolific  was  created  specially  for  them,  and 
the  work  of  Indian  extermination  might  have 
been  prosecuted  with  intense  zeal.  Pike,  yellow 
neds,  perch,  catfish !  Surely  such  a  bill  of  fare 
might  well  awaken  the  enthusiasm  of  any  man 
with  a  yachtsman's  appetite,  even  if  he  were  ab- 
solutely devoid  of  his  sporting  proclivities. 

Every  hour  of  day  or  night  appeared  to  me  to 


24  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

have  brought  some  peculiar  sound.  In  the  morn- 
ing we  had  catbirds,  blackbirds,  kingfishers,  and 
fish-hawks ;  at  noon,  a  family  of  crows,  young 
and  old,  kept  up  a  most  persistent  and  vigorous 
cawing.  Whether  the  last  was  a  lesson  in  elocu- 
tion for  the  junior  members  of  the  family  I  can- 
not say,  though  there  appeared  to  be  some  object 
and  some  method  in  it.  At  night  a  legion  of 
frogs  gave  us  a  prolonged  high-toned  serenade. 

Close  along  the  northern  shore  there  is  a  clean, 
gravelly  bottom,  and  a  somewhat  greater  depth 
of  water  than  a  little  farther  out,  where,  on  top 
of  the  gravel,  a  slimy,  dark,  oozy  mud  is  depos- 
ited. The  tide  at  that  point  appeared  to  flow 
more  rapidly  along-shore.  Examining  the  mud 
microscopically,  we  found  much  decaying,  loamy 
matter,  some  very  fine  sand,  and  a  number  of  the 
silicious  skeletons  of  diatoms.  I  never  saw  so 
many,  or  such  industrious  fish-hawks.  All  day 
long  we  could  hear  them  coming  down  with  a 
splash  into  the  water.  Of  course  an  occasional 
bald  eagle  appeared,  to  exact  his  contribution 
from  the  hawks.  Even  the  crows  seem  to  be 
unusually  aquatic  in  their  habits  here.  I  saw  one 
go  down  into  the  water  almost  as  recklessly  as 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      2$ 

the  fish-hawks  did.  High  grounds  and  low 
grounds  were  close  by  our  anchorage,  and  we 
found  the  yellow  clover,  the  small  verbena,  the 
blue-flag,  and  the  mountain-laurel  all  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  where  we  lay. 

This  was  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  won- 
dered why  men  will  sail  without  a  barometer  on 
board.  We  had  a  fine  thunder-storm,  and  from 
our  point  of  safety  could  enjoy  it.  The  heavy 
thunder  and  vivid  lightning  and  puffy  squalls 
would  have  combined  with  the  rain,  which  came 
down  in  force,  to  make  sailing  in  the  bay  unpleas- 
ant enough.  When  we  anchored,  there  was  not 
a  cloud  in  sight;  but  for  all  this  the  barometer 
warned  us  to  prepare.  We  did  so.  There  is 
always  more  or  less  danger  in  sailing  in  the 
bays  in  small  craft,  and  it  is  simply  common 
sense  to  take  the  lesser  risk  which  the  barometer 
affords. 

Monday,  the  i  ith,  we  were  off  by  six  in  the 
morning.  It  was  natural  that  we  should  leave 
Still  Pond  with  regret.  We  had  no  reason  to 
anticipate  finding  other  harbors  both  as  safe  and 
as  pleasant.  Let  me  say  to  other  yachtsmen  that, 
in  going  out  the  inlet,  back-flaws  and  baffling 
»  3 


26  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

winds  may  very  often,  if  not  usually,  be  expected 
as  the  bluff,  where  the  pond  narrows  into  the  inlet, 
is  passed.  Sometimes  these  uncertain  elements 
cause  no  little  trouble  in  "  working  ship"  where 
the  channel  is  so  narrow. 

Once  out  in  the  bay  the  little  "Martha"  en- 
countered the  full  force  of  a  strong  head-wind,  and 
fairly  danced  on  the  waves  like  a  cork.  White- 
caps  were  forming  on  all  sides.  The  wind  was 
puffy  and  uncertain, — now  almost  a  calm,  when  the 
boat  would  lose  her  headway  and  lie  like  a  log ; 
then  in  an  instant  a  violent  puff  would  strike  the 
sail,  knocking  the  yacht  down,  rail  to  the  water, 
before  she  could  gather  speed  enough  to  make 
her  mind  the  helm.  We  now  appreciated  the  full 
value  of  the  fixed  iron  ballast.  More  would  have 
been  better,  as  the  excessive  buoyancy  was  a  dis- 
advantage in  these  short,  chopping  seas.  Ballasted, 
as  the  boat  had  been  the  previous  year,  with  sand, 
most  of  which  was  hardly  below  the  water-line, 
such  sailing  must  have  been  dangerous  in  the 
extreme.  The  amazing  stupidity  of  many  yacht- 
owners  is  absolutely  a  marvel.  Most  of  those 
with  whom  I  spoke  before  placing  the  iron  in  my 
vessel  were  rather  inclined  to  tender  their  sym- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      37 

pathy  that  I  could  be  stupid  enough  to  buy  iron 
when  I  could  pick  up  sand  or  stones.  The  reason 
why  I  did  not  buy  more  and  place  it  where  it 
belonged,  outside  in  the  form  of  an  iron  keel,  was 
because  it  involved  an  expense  greater  than  I  felt 
at  liberty  to  incur.  The  worst  fault  was  not 
lack  of  stiffness,  but  great  buoyancy.  Lew  re- 
marked, in  a  quiet  way,  "This  boat  takes  the 
trouble  to  go  right  over  the  tops  of  all  these 
waves."  So  it  was ;  for  sometimes  she  actually 
appeared  to  jump  half  her  length  out  of  the  water. 
Three  miles  ahead  we  sighted  another  point, 
one  which  marked  a  tempting  harbor.  The  tide 
had  turned  and  was  against  us ;  this,  with  adverse 
winds  and  waves,  decided  us  to  put  into  the  har- 
bor,— Worton's  Creek.  The  attempt  to  beat  down 
to  Annapolis  involved  a  long,  hard  day's  work, 
with  no  pleasure  whatever  in  the  sail.  Giving  the 
yacht  more  sheet,  we  headed  for  the  creek,  en- 
tering it  in  good  style,  flying  past  a  party  of 
fishermen  who  were  running  out  an  immensely 
long  seine.  Once  fairly  in,  we  sighted  two  arms, 
one  of  which  ran  northward,  opening  into  a  con- 
siderable expanse  of  water,  the  other  and  more  in- 
viting one  extending  toward  the  south.  We  beat 


28  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

into  the  latter  about  a  mile,  and  dropped  oui 
anchor  opposite  to  Buck  Neck  Landing.  Shortly 
afterward  the  steamer  "  Van  Corlear,"  from  Balti- 
more, came  in  and  afforded  us  a  chance  to  send 
off  our  mail. 

For  a  while  the  place  appeared  to  be  alive, 
carriages  thronging  the  wharves  to  receive  those 
coming,  and  to  help  away  those  who  were  leaving. 
But  they  departed  with  the  steamer,  and  in  half 
an  hour  the  place  resumed  its  wonted  quietness. 
Dreaminess  appeared  to  rule  the  hours.  For  the 
rest  of  the  day  hardly  a  sign  of  life  was  visible. 
I  made  several  attempts  to  purchase  some  rope 
which  I  needed  on  the  yacht,  but  found  the  mer- 
chant was  taking  a  nap,  or  had  gone  visiting,  or 
was  somewhere  else  than  in  his  store.  Late  in 
the  evening  the  desired  purchase  was  made.  The 
law  of  compensation,  it  is  evident,  runs  through 
the  whole  universe  outside  of  ourselves.  I  am  con- 
vinced now  that  it  at  last  decides  the  individual 
destiny.  Were  it  not  for  some  such  law,  men  at 
Buck  Neck  Landing  might  live  forever,  or  cer- 
tainly as  long  as  the  patriarchs.  The  world's 
troubles  do  not  appear  to  concern  them,  the 
world's  thoughts  never  agitate  them ;  come  peace, 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       2g 

come  war,  nerve-tissues  and  myosin  are  renewed 
as  fast  as  expended,  and  but  for  some  beneficent 
disease  or  accident  men  never  would  leave  there 
to  stay  even  in  Paradise.  The  place  would  be 
overcrowded.  With  fish  in  the  waters  and  fruit 
on  the  land,  these  kind-hearted,  generous,  and 
honest  inhabitants  would  remain,  in  quiet  and  in 
sunshine,  until  they  multiplied  enough  to  wear 
their  clothing  out  by  jostling  against  each  other. 

There  was  a  solitary  living  exception  to  what 
I  have  said,  visible  from  meridian  until  four  P.M. 
A  good-natured  colored  boy  amused  himself  by 
the  hour  sculling  a  heavy  "  yawl-boat"  over  to  the 
western  side  of  the  creek ;  then,  hoisting  a  broad 
board  in  the  bow  for  a  sail,  he  threw  himself 
down  in  the  stern  of  the  boat  and  scudded  be- 
fore the  wind  back  to  the  eastern  shore.  He  was 
full  of  the  languid  poetry  of  drifting;  his  whole 
soul  was  saturated  with  it,  though  it  never  found 
expression.  The  solitary  reader  of  his  Muse  was 
myself.  Happiness  is  a  purely  relative  term. 
This,  of  course,  is  a  platitude.  But  who  of  all 
mankind  ever  come  to  fully  appreciate  the 
breadth  of  even  so  plain  a  thing,  and  to  rest  con- 
tent with  the  present  ?  I  have  in  mind  now  two 


go  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

who  illustrate  the  extremes.  One  of  them  is  that 
young  negro.  He  came  alongside,  and  I  gave 
him  a  bucket  of  preserved  prunes,  which  neither 
Lew  nor  myself  could  tolerate.  He  received 
them  with  open  eyes  and  mouth.  If  he  only 
knew  how  little  generosity  there  was  in  that  gift, 
we  would  suffer  in  his  estimate.  He  soon  be- 
came too  full  of  happiness  on  preserved  prunes 
even  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  crossing  the  creek 
behind  his  board-sail.  We  saw  him  on  the  other 
side,  with  his  feet  hanging  over  the  boat  and  re- 
ceiving the  caress  of  the  water,  just  as  his  face, 
upturned  to  the  sun,  was  comforted  by  the  su- 
perheated rays.  An  hour  later  Pompey  came 
alongside  again.  For  the  gift  of  a  cigar  -he  con- 
sented to  have  his  "  picture  tuk." 

Marked  on  the  lower  part  of  the  store  building 
I  found  the  statement,  "  High-water  mark.  Sep- 
tember 17,  1876."  It  was  gratifying  to  obtain 
the  fact,  not  only  because  it  was  a  fact  and  indi- 
cated a  storm-tide  several  feet  higher  than  com- 
mon, but  because  it  evinced  interest  in  an  unusual 
event.  However,  two  months  later  I  should  have 
seen  busy  times  on  that  very  quiet  wharf,  when 
the  peach  crop,  one  great  interest  of  the  region, 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       31 

was  being  shipped.  We  went  ashore  during  the 
evening,  and  enjoyed  the  hospitality  and  conver- 
sation of  one  of  the  near  residents. 

ANNAPOLIS. — Tuesday,  the  I2th,  we  left  our 
anchorage  on  the  last  of  the  ebb  tide,  and  headed 
south  for  Annapolis.  We  hoped  by  making  an 
early  start  to  reach  our  destination  in  spite  of 
the  adverse  and  heavy  weather.  So  we  did,  but  it 
was  at  the  cost  of  vast  patience  and  severe  buffet- 
ing. As  the  crow  flies,  the  distance  would  have 
been  considerably  less  than  thirty  miles.  In  a 
fair  wind  the  run  would  have  been  a  very  short 
one ;  but  in  a  small  boat,  with  wind  and  tide  both 
against  us,  it  consumed  a  great  part  of  the  day. 
Yet  it  appeared  that  we  were  not  much  "worse 
off  than  others  who  were  in  sight  and  bound  the 
same  way.  Harbor  after  harbor  was  passed,  until 
by  two  o'clock  P.M.  it  was  clear  that,  even  with 
the  odds  against  us,  reaching  our  destination 
was  merely  a  question  of  time  and  perseverance. 
Hoping  to  avoid  the  force  of  the  waves,  we  left 
the  eastern  shore  and  started  for  the  other  side. 
To  my  surprise,  where  I  expected  to  find  a  shel- 
tered shore,  the  water  was  almost  or  quite  as 
rough  as  the  one  we  had  left.  The  difference  in 


32  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

color  between  the  deep-green  water  and  the  yel- 
lowish hue  in  shoaler  places  was  strikingly  ap- 
parent. From  Bodkin  Point,  down  along  the 
western  shore,  the  beat  appeared  almost  intermi- 
nable. We  had  fully  decided  at  one  time  on  an- 
choring in  Magotha  Harbor.  On  maturer  reflec- 
tion we  both  concluded  it  would  be  just  a  little 
unmanly  to  remain  there  .over-night,  when  a 
friend  and  prospective  shipmate  was  waiting  for 
us  in  Annapolis.  It  did  appear,  though,  as  if  we 
never  could  get  by  Sandy  Point.  "  It  shoals"  a 
long,  long  way  out.  Then,  too,  fellow-yachtsmen, 
be  advised :  do  not  attempt,  as  we  did,  to  go  in- 
side of  the  buoys  off  Greenbury  Light  when  it  is 
blowing  a  gale,  unless  you  know  the  ground  too 
well  to  make  a  mistake.  The  "  Martha"  tried 
the  experiment,  and,  though  she  did  drag  over, 
there  was  nothing  at  all  to  spare.  It  is  very  try- 
ing to  keep  outside,  especially  when  the  wind  is 
against  you,  but  probably  you  will  find  it  best  to 
do  so. 

We  received  a  lesson  in  naval  architecture  when 
crossing  from  the  eastern  to  the  western  shore. 
My  boat,  being  the  usual  model  of  the  Dela- 
ware Bay, — broad  and  short, — was  at  her  very 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


33 


worst  in  the  head-wind  and  "  choppy  sea"  of  the 
Chesapeake.  She  labored  severely,  with  lee  rail 
under  (for  we  were  carrying  whole  sail,  though  the 
wind  whistled  through  the  rigging),  or  rose  over 
the  waves  until  it  appeared  as  if  more  than  half  the 
hull  was  out  of  water.  Alongside  of  us  came  a 
Chesapeake  "  bug-eye,"  *  of  light  draught,  but  long 
and  narrow.  We  saw  her  start  from  Tolchester 
Beach,  and  creep  up  on  us  swiftly  and  surely.  We 
were  laboring ;  she  was  moving  along  without  ef- 
fort, going  not  only  faster,  but  working  more  to 
the  windward.  At  the  very  time  this  forty-feet 
bug-eye  was  leaving  us,  we  ourselves  were  distanc- 
ing a  large  coasting  schooner.  The  bug-eye  ca- 
reened over  very  little,  went  easily  through  the 
water,  made  no  pounding  or  splashing,  and  looked 
almost  into  the  wind.  Thus  she  proved  herself 
as  possessing  every  requisite  of  a  first-class  sea- 
goer.  It  is  doubtful  if  she  drew  more  than  two 
feet  and  a  half  of  water ;  it  is  much  more  prob- 
able that  she  drew  less.  She  certainly  did  not 


*  The  term  "bug-eye"  appears  to  be  a  corruption  of  "buck- 
eye," which  name  was  at  first  given  from  the  auger-holes  on  either 
side  of  the  bow,  and  through  which  the  cable  ran. 
c 


34  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

have  ballast  enough  to  sink  her  if  she  had  filled 
with  water.  These  were  all  most  desirable  features 
in  a  small  boat.  But  here  was  a  direct  violation  of 
what  we  have  been  taught  were  cardinal  features 
in  small-boat  construction, — shallowness  and  small 
beam  on  the  one  hand,  and  great  length,  with  no 
ballast,  and  shallowness  on  the  other.  The  present 
ruling  fashion  is  that  a  small  boat  shall  be  at  least 
four  times  as  long  as  broad,  and  that  she  shall 
carry,  say,  half  her  tonnage,  or  more,  deep  down  in 
the  water,  in  the  shape  of  a  lead  or  iron  keel.  It 
is  certain  that  a  boat  built  after  this,  the  English 
cutter  model,  may  "  knock  down ;"  but  it  is  cer- 
tain she  will  not  stay  down.  Unless  she  fills,  she 
must  right  again.  I  believe  that,  so  far  as  our 
American  sloop  and  the  English  cutter  have  come 
into  fair  trial,  the  cutter  has  proven  the  better 
boat, — safer  and  faster.  I  am  not  sure  what  the 
result  of  a  contest  between  the  cutter  and  the 
bug-eye  would  be.  From  what  I  have  seen  of 
the  latter  class  of  boats  in  the  Chesapeake,  I  am 
most  strongly  prepossessed  in  their  favor.  The 
model  of  this  nondescript  is  peculiar.  Probably 
the  light  cedar  gunning-skiff  which  does  duty  as 
a  yawl-boat  for  us  is  as  nearly  an  exact  imitation 


(CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       35 

of  the  bug-eye  model  as  one  can  imagine.  Now, 
that  same  skiff,  with  sharp  bow  and  stern,  such  as 
the  bug-eye  was,  gave  us,  when  we  towed  it  down 
to  Annapolis  through  heavy  seas,  a  most  astonish- 
ing illustration  of  sea-worthiness.  Every  vessel  we 
met  had  her  yawl  swung  up,  or  on  deck.  Yet  our 
yawl  rode  so  easily  that  the  line  by  which  we 
towed  her  was  seldom  stretched,  and  not  a  tin- 
cupful  of  water  worked  into  her  during  the  whole 
day.  The  best  statement  I  can  give  of  the  bug- 
eye model  is  one  furnished  to  Forest  and  Stream 
by  "  Talbot."  Here  it  is.  The  accompanying 
illustration  will  give  a  general  idea  of  the  appear- 
ance of  the  craft.  It  should  be  added,  however, 
that  the  smaller  vessels  of  this  class  have  all*their 
sails  triangular  in  shape. 

CHESAPEAKE  BUG-EYES. 

Editor  Forest  and  Stream  : 

The  inquiry  contained  in  your  paper  concerning  the  bug-eye, 
as  it  is  called  by  our  oystermen,  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction, 
and  Mr.  Roosevelt  can  obtain  any  information  he  may  desire  from 
Captain  James  L.  Harrison,  Tilghman's  Island  P.  O.,  Talbot 
County,  Maryland.  Captain  Harrison  is  the  builder  of  the  fastest 
boat  of  this  type  on  the  Chesapeake.  If  this  model  is  peculiar  to 
this  section,  there  remains  in  store  a  treat  for  all  who  adopt  it  in 


36  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

other  waters,  where  speed  and  safety  are  desired.  The  boat  is 
not  perfectly  flat-bottomed,  as  Mr.  Roosevelt  supposes,  but  built  so 
as  to  combine  light  draught  and  carrying  capacity.  The  centre- 
board is  constant,  also  single  head-gear.  The  jigger  is  always 


CHESAPEAKE   BUG  EYE. 


stepped  so  as  to  trim  sheets  to  traveller  on  deck.  Many  of  them 
are  built  with  round  sterns  with  overhang,  as  in  the  cutter. 
Schooner  rig  prevails  to  great  extent,  but  adds  nothing  to  speed. 
These  boats  are  extremely  fast,  and  brave  the  heaviest  gales  of 
our  winter.  Larger  vessels  often  capsize,  but  the  bug-eye  never. 
I  enclose  you  the  dimensions  of  the  boat  thought  to  be  the  fast- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


37 


est  in  the  whole  fleet,  with  a  sketch  showing  rig:  length,  fifty 
feet;  beam,  twelve  and  one-half  feet;  dead  rise,  one  and  one- 
half  inches  to  the  foot;  draught,  light,  three  feet;  centreboard, 
twelve  feet. 

TALBOT. 

It  appears  from  the  above,  especially  when  one 
remembers  the  sharp-sterned  "pinkies"  of  half 
a  century  ago  on  the  New  England  coast,  and 
which  were  so  remarkable  for  sea-going  qualities, 
that  in  estimating  all  the  good  lines  in  a  boat- 
model  we  must  probably  give  considerable  im- 
portance to  the  shape  of  the  stern.  Indeed,  some 
assert  that  the  shape  of  the  latter  is  of  as  much 
importance  as  that  of  the  bow.  I  have  a  half-con- 
viction that,  taken  all  in  all,  these  same  bug-eyes 
are  as  fast  and  as  safe  as  many  of  our  renowned 
yachts  of  the  same  size. 

The  evolution  or  mode  of  development  of  the 
bug-eye  is  interesting.  So  far  as  now  appears, 
the  whole  fleet  of  them  grew  out  of  the  equally 
famous  Chesapeake  log  canoe, — "  kunners,"  as  the 
negroes  and  some  of  the  illiterate  whites  called 
them.  These  originally  were  made  from  three 
large  pine  logs,  which  were  neatly  and  strongly 

jointed  together  by  three  dressed  faces,  so  that 

4 


38  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

one  made  the  bottom  and  the  other  two  the  sides. 
These  were  hollowed  out  and  finely  shaped  out- 
side. Being  nothing  but  wood,  they  were  of  course 
unsinkable,  besides  being  extremely  strong,  tight, 
and  durable.  Then  two  long  masts,  which  had 
a  most  wonderful  rake,  were  added.  A  jib  was, 
or  was  not  reckoned  part  of  the  outfit.  These 
Chesapeake  canoes  did  their  work  so  well  that 
they  became  the  popular  small  boat  of  the  region, 
and  to  increase  their  size  and  carrying  capacity 
the  largest  available  logs  were  used.  Still,  the 
limit  in  size  did  not  appear  to  have  been  reached, 
and  the  model  is  essentially  preserved  in  boats 
•now  framed  and  planked  up  in  the  ordinary  ship 
style.  These  are  the  latest  product  of  Chesapeake 
naval  genius,  and  are  the  popular  bug-eyes.  The 
small  modifications  of  the  canoe  type  which  they 
have  introduced  are  somewhat  more  "  dead  rise" 
and  more  swell  amidships.  It  may  be  well  for  our 
yacht  constructors,  before  absolutely  and  finally 
adopting  the  deep  English  type  as  the  highest 
product  and  most  suitable  vessel  for  our  waters, 
to  examine  very  carefully  into  the  claims  of  these 
nondescripts.  We  offer  no  opinion  ;  that  must  be 
formed  after  full,  fair  trial.  Chesapeake  naval- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


39 


constructive  genius  cannot  well  be  despised.  It 
has  too  famous  a  place  in  the  history  of  the  Balti- 
more clipper,  which  a  generation  ago  so  aston- 
ished the  world.  To  my  mind  the  secret  of  their 
wonderful  stiffness  remains  unsolved.  Oystermen 
say  they  will  live  out  a  storm  longer  than  any 
other  model  on  the  bay.  There  is*  no  other  style 
growing  more  in  favor  with  these  men  than  the 
bug-eye.  Hence,  then,  a  fair  trial,  if  for  no  other 
reason  than  to  test  the  value  of  an  American  type. 

A  day  could  not  be  spared,  on  our  way  down, 
to  see  the  points  of  interest  in  and  about  Annapolis 
without  a  serious  break  in  our  plans.  However,  as 
we  found  a  friend  (Lieutenant  Bull,  of  the  navy), , 
the  break  was  made,  and  the  time  spent  in  the 
grounds  of  the  Naval  Academy,  under  his  guid- 
ance, was  a  more  than  sufficient  compensation  for 
waiting. 

When  we  left,  on  the  morning  of  the  I4th,  we 
were  comforted  by  the  assurance,  received  the 
day  before,  that  we  might  expect  head-winds  going 
down  the  bay  about  nine  days  out  of  ten  at  that 
season.  However,  thanks  to  the  squall  of  the 
previous  evening,  the  wind  had  hauled  around  to 
the  north,  and  we  had  a  fresh  breeze  following  us 


40  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

all  day.  So  that,  after  a  run  of  ninety  miles,  we 
dropped  our  anchor  for  the  night  in  Smith's  Creek, 
a  little  offshoot  from  the  Potomac.  The  small 
number  of  sails  we  saw  in  making  the  run  was 
a  surprise,  bearing  no  comparison  to  what  we  ex- 
pected, or  to  what  we  should  certainly  have  seen 
had  we  been  on  the  Delaware.  Still,  it  is  hard 
to  think  that  Baltimore,  with  its  superb  water- 
approaches,  will  long  lag  in  the  race. 

The  little  bay,  for  such  it  was,  in  which  we 
had  anchored  was  completely  landlocked,  and  not 
more  than  two  hundred  yards  wide ;  yet  it  con- 
tained water  enough  for  a  good-sized  vessel.  This 
*  abundance  of  superior  harbors  may  be  considered 
as  a  peculiarity  in  which  the  Chesapeake  is  pre- 
eminent. This,  aleng  with  the  navigable  waters, 
estuaries,  and  rivers  intersecting  the  land  in  all 
directions,  has  in  one  sense  retarded  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country, — i.e.,  by  making  water  com- 
munication so  easy  and  so  extensive,  it  has  in  so 
far  superseded  the  necessity  for  roads.  The  sail- 
ing canoe  is  the  ordinary  means  of  travel  from 
place  to  place  along  the  shores.  This  retarding 
effect  was  observed  even  by  the  early  colonial 
writers. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      ^ 

June  the  I5th  still  gave  us,  in  the  morning, 
a  promising  northerly  wind,  and  we  started  out 
early,  hoping  to  make  a  big  run  to  the  south- 
ward that  day.  It  was,  however,  four  P.M.  when  we 
reached  Milford  Haven,  on  the  Piankatank  River. 
Our  intention  had  been  to  push  on  down  to  Mob- 
jack  Bay,  but  the  weakening  wind  warned  us  to 
seek  a  harbor  while  we  could  have  daylight  to  do 
it  in.  No  rule  can  be  regarded  as  invariable  when 
one's  doings  depend  upon  the  uncertainties  of 
wind  and  weather.  It  was  my  desire,  however, 
always  to  be  at  anchor  by  three  in  the  afternoon. 
This  allowed  a  turn  on  shore  to  see  what  could 
be  found,  and  gave  us  a  chance  to  take  in  ajl 
the  surroundings,  and  decide  what  we  would  do 
in  any  emergency  which  might  arise  during  the 
night. 

Milford  Haven  is  still  another  of  those  surprises 
which  constantly  greet  one  yachting  along  the 
western  shore  of  the  Chesapeake.  Now,  as  else- 
where, we  were  landlocked  for  the  night.  The 
entrance,  which  at  first  appeared  too  small  to 
admit  a  vessel,  widens  out  into  a  broad,  deep 
mouth,  and  inside  the  harbor  which  it  leads  to 
a  whole  fleet  of  canoes  and  some  good-sized 


42 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


schooners  lay.  During  the  evening  spent  there 
Mr.  J.  and  Lew  occupied  themselves  catching 
crabs.  Half  an  hour  of  the  sport  was  sufficient 
to  cover  the  deck  with  vigorous  pugnacious 
specimens,  who  the  night  through  manifested 
their  excessive  vitality  by  threatening  any  one 
audacious  enough  to  leave  the  cabin  in  the  dark 
hours.  However,  this  was  more  than  compensated 
for  when  we  came  to  enjoy  them  cooked.  There 
is  a  difference  in  flavor  of  crabs,  just  as  there  is 
in  that  of  oysters ;  and  for  both  Milford  Haven  is 
justly  famous.  Cape  May  "goodies,"  served  up 
with  the  oysters  and  crabs,  make  one  even  now, 
after  the  lapse  of  several  months,  remember  our 
anchorage  in  the  Piankatank  with  feelings  of  com- 
plete satisfaction. 

There  was  a  source  of  annoyance  in  our  charts. 
These  were  all  that  we  could  desire  out  in  the 
deep  water,  but  along-shore,  in  water  where  we 
thought  we  could  go,  they  gave  us  no  informa- 
tion. The  score  of  little  bays  and  harbors  that  one 
"  might  make,"  if  only  his  chart  would  indicate  the 
depth  of  water  or  show  him  the  way  in,  were  a 
constant  aggravation,  because  we  knew  there  were 
such,  and  such  quiet  places,  too,  as  we  most  de- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      43 

sired  to  enter  with  camera  in  hand.  Chart-makers, 
we  shoal-water  yachtsmen,  we  owners  of  very 
small  craft,  do  beseech  you  to  give  the  channel 
and  the  depth  of  water  into  every  small  harbor  in 
the  Chesapeake.  Our  experience  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Potomac  was  provoking.  The  chart  led  us  to 
put  in  there  because  of  a  small  safe  harbor  which 
was  indicated ;  but  we  searched  in  vain  for  it,  and 
were  obliged  to  make  a  considerable  run  out  of 
our  way  to  find  a  secure  anchorage. 

June  1 6th  found  us  astir  by  sunrise,  which  this 
season  of  the  year  means  by  about  half-past  four. 
We  thought  ourselves  early  risers,  but  the  par- 
tridges were  up  before  us,  and  we  could  hear  their 
musical  whistle  from  all  sides.  Is  it  so  that  there 
are  early  and  late  risers  among  our  day-birds  ?  It 
was  not  until  long  after  the  "  Bob  White"  whistle 
was  heard  that  the  crows  began  to  make  them- 
selves conspicuously  noisy.  However,  this  was 
Virginia  we  were  in,  and  it  is  only  within  a  few 
years  that  black  folks  have  dared  to  speak  at  all. 

Our  anchorage  in  Milford  Haven  was  on  the 
southern  side.  The  anchor  was  let  go  in  two 
fathoms  of  water,. but  during  the  night,  swinging 
with  the  tide,  the  yacht  had  been  left  stern 


44  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

aground.  This  accident  caused  but  little  delay. 
We  were  soon  floating,  and  in  less  than  the 
length  of  the  yacht  were  again  in  the  channel, 
with  water  enough  for  a  large  schooner.  Most 
of  these  harbors  have  certain  features  in  common. 
Thus  there  is  ordinarily  a  bar  at  the  outlet,  where 
the  current  of  the  main  body  of  the  water,  meet- 
ing with  that  coming  from  the  harbor,  causes 
enough  retardation  of  the  water  to  allow  the 
suspended  mineral  matters  to  fall  to  the  bot- 
tom. Such,  at  least,  is  the  explanation  which 
forces  itself  on  my  mind.  There  may  be  a  much 
better  one,  however,  for  aught  that  I  know. 
Then,  again,  leading  to  and  from  all  these  har- 
bors, there  is  a  strong  current  where  the  inlet  or 
outlet  is  narrow  and  the  harbor  is  wide.  Hence 
through  this  narrow  part  there  must  be  a  rapid 
current,  with  great  capacity  for  deepening  and 
eroding  the  channel.  This,  in  fact,  is  just  what 
we  find,  and  when  by  storm  or  otherwise  the 
channel  is  closed,  this  swift  current  very  speedily 
opens  another. 

We  asked  a  negro  who  came  along-side  to  sell 
oysters,  just  after  we  had  anchored,  who  the  fe- 
males were  that,  in  the  absence  of  the  men  of  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      45 

crew,  saved  their  sloop  from  the  vengeance  of  the 
governor  when  he  was  hunting  oyster  pirates,  a 
few  months  before.  There  was  a  nice  little  story 
going  the  rounds  of  the  newspapers  that  these 
Piankatank  women,  recognizing  the  emergency, 
escaped  by  themselves  getting  the  anchor  and 
sails  up  and  navigating  the  vessel  to  a  place  of 
safety.  One  of  our  popular  illustrated  journals 
gave  a  page  or  two  of  rhyming  history  of  the 
affair.  The  negro  knew  nothing  of  it;  but,  if  it 
"  was  so,  he  guessed  they  must  have  come  from 
the  other  side."  Whether  true  or  not,  it  illustrates 
that  home  praises  are  often  very  faint,  and  that  it 
is  only  when  echoed  back  from  a  distance  that 
they  are  heard  at  all.  Alas  for  fame ! 

There  is  a  tortuous,  very  narrow  channel  from 
Milford  Haven  out  to  the  bay,  in  which,  by  sail- 
ing east,  we  hoped  to  save  important  time  that 
would  have  been  lost  to  have  gone  out  from  the 
north  as  we  came  in.  A  very  intelligent  colored 
man,  one  Richard  McKnight,  undertook  to  pilot 
us  through  this  lower  passage.  We  found  him  a 
character,  who,  between  serving  during  war  times 
as  a  cook  for  a  Northern  general  and  as  a  sailor, 
had  gathered  quite  a  fund  of  information.  The 


46  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

use  he  made  of  his  knowledge  as  we  drifted 
slowly  out  was  very  entertaining.  His  observa- 
tions upon  the  animal  life  around  us  were  quite 
acute.  As  for  the  fish-hawks  and  the  eagles,  he 
seemed  to  have  been  taken  into  their  secrets. 
Their  sounds  and  movements  were  familiar  to  him 
as  those  of  the  little  boy  who  accompanied  him. 
Among  other  things,  he  told  the  local  tale  as  to 
why  the  eagle  exacted  a  tribute  from  the  hawk. 
The  former  was  the  earlier  inhabitant  of  the 
region.  When  the  fish-hawk  came,  he  did  not 
know  how  to  make  his  nest.  This  the  eagle 
taught  him  to  do,  under  promise  that  the  hawk 
should  pay  in  fish  for  the  instruction.  This  obli- 
gation was  disregarded,  and  the  eagle  was  obliged 
to  take  his  due  by  force. 

So  simple  a  tale  as  this,  not  elaborate  enough 
or  far  enough  reaching  in  its  relations  to  be 
classed  as  a  myth,  was,  nevertheless,  extremely 
suggestive.  It  brought  to  my  mind  the  fact  that 
these  tales  are  always  found,  when  found  at  all, 
among  those  who,  without  being  ignorant,  are 
nevertheless  always  illiterate.  How  the  folk-lore 
originally  came,  it  is,  after  all,  hard  to  explain. 
It  would  be  hard  to  prove  that  it  had  always  a 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       47 

more  substantial  basis  than  this  tale  of  the  col- 
ored pilot.  Our  American  Indians  have  such 
explanations  as  this  for  the  habits  of  almost  every 
animal. 

Those  wild  winter  nights  when,  in  1865,  I  was 
in  the  most  unknown  and  uncivilized  parts  of 
British  Columbia  were  in  one  way  a  perpetual 
delight  to  me.  My  Indians,  crouching  around 
the  camp-fire,  amused  themselves  by  telling,  night 
after  night,  the  same  tales,  with  as  much  eager- 
ness and  interest  as  if  they  had  been  wholly  fresh 
and  new.  Thus  the  beaver  and  the  porcupine 
decided  to  travel  together.  The  beaver  was  to 
take  the  porcupine  across  the  rivers,  and  the 
porcupine  was  to  help  the  beaver  down  the  hills. 
The  beaver,  however,  ducked  the  porcupine  in 
crossing  a  stream;  and  then,  as  his  hair  dried 
in  the  warm  sun,  it  became  hard  and  rigid  like 
quills.  The  porcupine  retaliated  by  dragging  the 
beaver  down  the  next  mountain,  and  so  wore  all 
the  fat  off  of  the  under-side  of  his  body ;  and  none 
has  ever  come  there  since. 

The  run  of  the  i6th  was  a  very  short  one.  We 
anchored  for  the  night  behind  New  Point  Com- 
fort. So  far  as  the  weather  was  concerned,  we 


48  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

rested  well  enough,  but  there  was  a  fish-mill  on 
shore  which  was  most  exasperatingly  fragrant. 
It  called  to  mind  some  passages  from  "The 
Tempest,"— 

ADRIAN.  The  air  breathes  upon  us  here  most  sweetly. 
SEBASTIAN.  As  if  it  had  lungs,  and  rotten  ones. 
ANTONIO.  Or,  as  'twere  perfumed  by  a  fen. 

The  United  States  boat  "  Fish-Hawk"  lay  in  the 
same  place.  We  could  not  see  just  what  she  was 
doing,  though,  of  course,  she  had  some  mission 
there,  and  was  accomplishing  it  in  the  usual  com- 
fortable, leisurely  government  way. 

Sunday  morning,  the  1 7th,  the  wind  was  so  fair 
that  we  concluded  to  start  for  Fortress  Monroe. 
An  hour  before  sunrise  everything  looked  un- 
promising. The  wind  was  not  only  dead  ahead, 
but  there  was  too  much  of  it.  Any  other  place 
was  better  than  where  we  were.  It  was  certain 
that  we  must  make  a  harbor  somewhere  else. 
Then,  too,  the  Sabbath  in  full  reach  of  the  odors 
from  a  fish-mill !  It  would  have  been  enough  to 
banish  all  proper  feeling,  and  to  concentrate  all 
one's  attention  on  his  nose.  So  the  start  was 
made,  and  soon,  as  the  old  adverse  breeze  died 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


49 


away,  a  new  and  favoring  one  sprang  up.  This 
carried  us  to  the  fort  by  half-past  two  in  the 
afternoon. 

The  following  day  we  started  up  the  James, 
anchoring  for  the  night  at  the  lower  end  of 
Jamestown  Island.  The  next  evening  found  us 
anchored  off  City  Point,  where  my  vacation  work 
was  to  begin. 

The  only  unpleasant  association  connected  with 
the  place  was  that  my  friend,  Mr.  J.,  who  had 
been  with  us  for  a  week,  took  his  departure  for 
the  North  and  the  treadmill  of  life  again. 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


CHAPTER    III. 

DOWN   THE  JAMES   AND   UP   THE   CHESAPEAKE. 

To  the  next  generation  City  Point  will  have 
lost  the  meaning  which  it  has  for  thousands  of 
men  now  living.  Its  very  situation,  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  James  and  the  Appomattox,  is  full  of 
stirring  suggestions.  It  is  strange  that  the  waters 
which  flow  past  the  birthplace  of  the  nation 
should  also  have  their  source  so  close  to  the  spot 
where  the  final  struggle  for  its  life  and  perpetuity 
was  made. 

Bermuda  Hundred,  City  Point,  and  Petersburg 
are  all  associated,  geographically  and  histori- 
cally, and  all  were  during  the  recent  war  a  very 
focus  of  military  operations.  Plots  and  counter- 
plots were  worked  out  there.  Troops  were  em- 
barked and  disembarked  on  the  very  wharves 
whose  ruins  yet  remain  along-shore.  Over  those 
very  decaying  piles,  hundreds,  mayhap  thousands, 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       5! 

of  wounded  or  sick  heroes  marched,  or  were  car- 
ried, on  their  way  to  Northern  hospitals. 

The  town  itself  has  but  little  to  speak  of. 
Whatever  energy  the  place  indicates  is  centred 
along  the  wharves,  where  the  railroad  and  the 
steamboats  meet.  Rumor  says  some  interest 
hostile  to  the  growth  of  the  place  is  at  work. 
It  is  hard  now  to  picture  the  sight  of  troops  and 
engines  of  war  on  the  very  spot  which,  at  the 
time  of  our  visit,  was  covered  with  matured 
wheat.  The  only  reminder  of  war  that  one  sees 
are  the  six  monitors  which  lie  at  anchor  on  the 
southern  side  of  the  channel.  One  officer,  re- 
siding in  Petersburg,  commanded  the  whole  fleet, 
while  a  squad  of  men  does  duty  in  allowing  the 
old  war-battered  vessels  to  rust  and  rot  in  be- 
coming dignity.  Their  decks  are  white ;  the  iron, 
and  other  things  which  the  unwritten  law  of  the 
sea  demands  shall  be  black,  receive  their  proper 
care  and  color.  All  of  these  monitors  have  seen 
service.  They  are  part  of  the  original  fleet  which 
first  in  a  practical  way  settled  the  value  of  ar- 
mored ships.  Weak  as  they  now  are  from  age 
and  in  comparison  with  the  ironclads  of  other 
governments  which  have  decent  self-respect,  they 


52  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

were  once  the  very  bulwarks  of  the  nation.  One 
hardly  knows  whether  most  to  pity  or  to  de- 
spise a  power  which  in  time  of  peace  allows  its 
strength  to  rot  into  weakness,  and  then  to  disap- 
pear,— all  this,  too,  as  the  sop  thrown  to  party 
selfishness  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  party  fear  on 
the  other.  On  the  mere  basis  of  probabilities,  one 
might  venture  to  assert  that  there  are  a  score  of 
land  and  water  leaders,  men  yet  unknown,  who 
in  the  proper  time  and  emergency  would  come 
forward  to  command  our  forces  and  to  organize 
victory,  provided  that  they  had  the  mere  material 
of  war.  We  can  probably  produce  Grants  and 
Porters  more  speedily  than  ironclads  and  cruisers. 
Heroes  are  very  much  creatures  of  accident,  as 
monitors  are  of  time  and  money. 

Taking  the  James  as  a  whole,  the  banks  are  still 
very  much  as  nature  and  war  left  them.  Consid- 
ering that  nearly  three  centuries  have  passed  since 
the  early  colonists  landed,  it  is  remarkable  how 
many  of  the  beautiful  building-sites  along  the 
banks  remain  timber-clad  to  this  day.  Here  and 
there  a  stately  mansion  rises  on  the  bluffs  or 
towers  up  from  behind  the  belt  of  woods.  This 
is  to  be  said, — that  when  costly  homes  were 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       53 

erected,  the  choice  of  the  site  was  almost  invari- 
ably in  favor  of  a  commanding  position.  Nowhere 
in  the  country  is  this  more  clearly  manifest  than 
along  the  James.  More  than  this,  I  fancy  one 
can  see,  only  half  concealed,  the  wish  that  in 
future  these  same  halls  might  have  clustered 
about  them  not  only  the  associations  of  the  old 
English  homes  after  whose  patterns  they  were 
built,  but  also  something  like  baronial  pomp  as 
well.  Virginia  thresholds  suggest  not  only  a 
color  line,  but  a  caste  line.  This  is  not  so  much 
an  individual  peculiarity  as  it  is  due  to  times 
first  and  circumstances  afterward;  and  it  reflects 
the  aggregate  sentiment  of  a  ruling  circle.  It 
may,  like  the  odor  of  roses,  persist  even  after 
the  process  of  disintegration  has  set  in.  If  one 
is  struck  unpleasantly  by  these  appearances  of 
strength,  he  must  not  forget  the  real  strength, 
the  genuine  heroism  and  the  broad  statesmanship, 
which  this  old  commonwealth  nurtured.  It  is  fair 
to  judge  a  generation  rather  by  what  the  best 
men  desire  to  do  than  by  what  the  average  char- 
acters succeed  in  doing.  When  actions  have 
passed  into  history  and  we  sum  up  the  doings  of 
a  past  generation,  we  are  most  likely  to  estimate 


54  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

their  rank  by  what  the  pioneers  in  thought  and 
deed  have  accomplished  for  those  who  followed 
them.  This  is  surely  the  most  ennobling  in- 
fluence to  be  drawn  from  history ;  and  in  medi- 
tating over  the  doings  of  two  centuries  with 
Virginia,  it  is  well  that  we  give  ourselves  the 
benefit  of  that  lesson. 

The  same  old  tale  of  timber  destruction  which 
is  written  on  the  bare  hillsides  of  the  North  is 
being  rewritten  on  the  banks  of  the  James.  Tim- 
ber exportation  is  one  of  the  industries  of  the 
region, — good  enough  -for  the  present,  but,  in  the 
interest  of  the  future,  not  nearly  so  productive  of 
benefit  as  a  policy  would  be  which  made  men 
save,  that  timber  where  it  is  and  gain  the  year's 
living  from  old  acres  better  tilled.  Three-fourths 
of  all  the  vessels  that  went  out  of  the  James 
during  our  stay  there  were  freighting  away  tim- 
ber. Granting  what  must  be  granted, — the  un- 
healthiness  of  the  low  grounds, — would  it  not  be 
better  to  leave  them  for  the  present  in  standing 
timber,  where  it  exists,  or  even  to  replant  where 
it  has  been  removed  in  anticipation  of  the  time, 
which  is  surely  coming,  in  which  forest  value  will 
be  as  certain  as  the  value  of  a  silver-mine  ?  The 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


55 


question  is,  or  soon  will  be,  a  national  one — can 
we  longer  afford  to  be  without  some  such  system 
of  forestry  as  has  produced  beneficent  results  in 
France  and  in  Germany  ?  True,  it  may  be  many 
years  before  Virginia  will  suffer  from  lack  of 
timber.  But  then  that  simply  means  she  yet 
has  time  to  study  a  lesson  which  many  other 
States  have  already  learned  to  their  cost, — that  it 
is  bad  to  be  short  of  timber,  and  that,  once  gone, 
it  takes  many  years  and  costs  much  money  to 
restore  a  forest. 

The  difference  between  the  season  here  and 
near  Philadelphia  is  quite  marked.  As  I  looked 
from  my  cabin  window  on  June  2Oth  I  could 
see  muck  of  the  wheat  crop  already  cut  and  "  in 
shock."  A  day  earlier  I  found  blackberries 
(Rubus  villosus]  fully  ripened;  even  the  wild 
plums  (Prunus  Americana]  were  commencing  to 
be  edible. 

With  a  fair  wind,  on  June  2Oth  we  left  City 
Point  to  descend  the  river.  The  first  stopping- 
place  was  at  Berkeley,  a  few  miles  below.  I 
wanted  a  view  of  the  old  mansion-house,  which, 
erected  in  1723,  has  been  the  scene  of  many  im- 
portant historical  events.  Tradition  tells  us  that 


56  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

on  the  lawn  in  front  of  this  building  Patrick 
Henry  rehearsed  his  great  speech  to  the  Virginia 
representatives,  before  whom  it  was  in  form  de- 
livered at  the  Virginia  Convention.  I  can  neither 
confirm  nor  deny  the  historical  accuracy  of  this 
statement,  which  was  given  to  me  by  the  courteous 
and  obliging  proprietor,  Mr.  Stevens.  In  the  same 
house  President  Harrison  was  born.  It  was  used 
also  by  General  McClellan  during  his  Peninsular 
campaign ;  and  then  were  removed  the  beautiful 
trees  which  once  ornamented  the  lawn,  facing  and 
gradually  sloping  to  the  river,  three  hundred  yards 
away.  The  original  grant  of  this  estate  dates  back 
to  1636,  when  it  was  given  by  the  Crown  to 
the  Merchants'  Trading  Company,  and  by  them 
sold  to  Benjamin  Harrison,  in  1645,  f°r  tne  sum 
of  sixteen  pounds  sterling,  containing  then  about 
eight  thousand  acres,  and  extending  back  to  the 
Chickahominy. 

Malvern  Hill;  where  our  great  but  unutilized 
victory  was  gained  during  the  recent  war,  is  but 
eight  miles  distant. 

The  steep  banks  of  the  bluff,  where  they  face  the 
river,  show  a  mixture  of  sand  and  gravel  which  is 
very  like  that  revealed  by  the  cuts  of  the  Chesapeake 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       57 

and  Delaware  Canal.  The  bald  cypress  (Taxodium 
distichuni)  was  at  its  very  best  when  I  saw  it  in 
June.  Its  light-green  feathery  foliage  contrasted 
richly  with  the  dark-hued  pines  back  of  it.  To 
those  who  have  never  seen  these  trees  before,  they 
always  present  a  strange  appearance,  which  is  due, 
first,  to  the  fact  that  they  grow  down  to  and  in 
the  water;  and,  second,  to  their  large,  conical, 
buttress-like  hollow  roots.  They  can  hardly  help 
enlarging  one's  views  of  the  possibilities  of  plant- 
life  and  form  for  variation.  Along-side  of  or  but 
little  higher  than  the  cypress,  the  buttonwood 
(Platanus  occidentalis),  with  its  large  leaves,  was 
thriving  luxuriantly;  and,  still  farther  from  the 
river,  the  leaves  of  the  Liquidambar,  or  the  sweet- 
gum  tree,  stood  out  boldly  with  their  five  to  seven 
projecting  ray-like  lobes. 

In  one  respect  the  condition  of  the  negroes  and 
poorer  whites  along  the  shores  of  the  bay  and  the 
banks  of  the  river  has  not  much  improved  since  the 
days  of  slavery.  They  were  then,  as  now, — prob- 
ably hardly  more  than  now, — largely  depending  on 
the  water  for  much  of  their  food.  Sailing  up  and 
down  the  James,  we  saw  them,  after  the  work  of 
the  day,  actively  engaged  in  fishing.  In  one  house 


58  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

which  we  entered  we  found  an  old  gray-headed  col- 
ored woman  preparing  the  same  kind  of  corn-bread 
that  was  the  staple  food  years  ago.  By  day  and 
by  night  we  could  see  and  hear  the  sturgeon 
jumping  out  of  the  water,  and  coming  down  again 
with  their  characteristic  heavy  splash. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  most  of  the  really 
desirable  land  in  our  Western  Territories  is  already 
taken  up,  the  idea  forces  itself  upon  one  that 
capital  seeking  land  investment  would  do  well  to 
turn  its  attention  toward  Virginia.  It  should  be 
remembered  that  portions  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois  were  once  (indeed,  still  are)  as  much 
under  the  curse  of  malaria  as  the  banks  of  the 
dreaded  James  River.  Yet  those  samev  regions 
have  become  centres  of  active  industry  and  of  busi- 
ness prosperity.  Cinchona  has  as  nearly  eliminated 
malaria  as  an  element  in  retarding  civilized  oc- 
cupancy of  a  new  land  as  the  telegraph  has  an- 
nihilated space.  This  woof  and  warp  of  human 
events  is  a  strangely  tangled  thing.  Who  could 
have  supposed  that  the  discovery  of  remedial 
properties  in  a  tree  on  the  slopes  of  the  Andes 
would  open  an  avenue  which  made  African  ex- 
ploration and  settlement  by  white  races  possible  ? 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       59 

Yet  who  can  deny  that  it  has  done  so  ?  Those 
who  will  drink  the  waters  of  Marah  have  a  right 
to  the  palm-trees  of  Elim.  It  is  certain  that  the 
bad  reputation  of  the  region  along  the  James  was 
intensified  by  the  long  list  of  sick  men  sent  home 
from  there  during  the  Peninsular  campaign;  but 
then  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  the  circum- 
stances under  which  those  victims  had  lived  were 
altogether  exceptional  and  trying. 

At  ten  o'clock  at  night  we  would  hear  the 
negro  fishermen  singing  as  loudly  and  happily  as 
though  they  had  not  already  done  a  day's  work. 
Light-hearted  race !  How  well  they  illustrate 
that  life  and  contentment  are,  after  all,  pretty 
much  as  we  make  them  ! 

Our  short  stay  on  the  James  would,  of  course, 
furnish  very  incomplete  data  on  which  to  base 
an  estimate  as  to  the  number  of  vessels  of  con- 
siderable size  which  pass  up  and  down  the  river 
each  day.  While  we  were  there,  probably  it  would 
be  safe  to  say,  there  were  three  or  four  daily  each 
way  that  went  or  had  been  above  City  Point. 

On  the  evening  of  June  2Oth  we  anchored  near 
what  was  left  of  the  old  Fort  Powhatan.  A  still 
strong  river-wall  is  all  that  marks  the  site  of  this 


60  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

once-important  post  from  the  river  side.  A  coun- 
try store  stands  on  the  hill  above,  and  a  wharf 
furnishes  a  landing-place  for  good-sized  vessels. 
Shipment  of  timber  appears  to  be  at  present  the 
chief  industry.  Earthworks,  occupied  for  a  time 
during  the  recent  war,  are  on  the  hill  back. 

Continuing  our  voyage  down  the  river,  the  next 
landing  was  made  at  Lower  Brandon.  During 
the  war  I  had  occasion  to  know  the  bravery  and 
the  persistency  of  purpose  with  which  the  Vir- 
ginians adhered  to  their  doctrine  of  State  Rights. 
Here,  at  Lower  Brandon,  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life,  I  was  made  acquainted  with  the  hospitality 
for  which  the  old  families  of  the  State  are  so 
proverbial.  I  presented  myself  at  the  door  of 
the  noble  old  mansion,  a  sun-browned  yachtsman, 
certainly  with  dust  on  my  shoes,  and  I  fear  with 
the  odor  of  tar  on  my  raiment.  The  gentleman  of 
the  house  being  away,  permission  to  photograph 
the  house  and  its  surroundings  was  very  kindly 
given  by  the  ladies.  By  them,  also,  I  was  taken 
to  the  parlor  and  shown  the  old  family  portraits, 
each  of  which  had  a  history.  Indeed,  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  a  single  private  room  on  the  continent 
contains  a  larger  number  of  portraits  of  distin- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      6 1 

guished  persons,  most  of  whom,  too,  were  related 
to  the  occupants  of  the  house.  Some  of  these 
paintings  were  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  old. 

Colonel  Byrd,  who  figured  so  conspicuously  in 
all  the  early  doings  of  the  colony  and  in  its  re- 
lation to  the  mother-country,  had,  of  course, 
a  conspicuous  place  among  the  family  portraits. 
Mrs.  H.  most  kindly  allowed  me  to  examine  the 
original  manuscript  account  by  Colonel  Byrd  of 
running  the  line  between  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina.  He  was  himself  one  of  the  leading 
characters  in  the  work.  Colonel  Byrd's  writings 
furnish  a  mine  of  wealth  which  no  historical  stu- 
dent of  the  times  and  the  colony  can  afford  to  be 
without.  They  have  been  published  under  title 
of  "  The  Westover  Papers,"  and  throughout  are 
characterized  by  elegance,  force,  and  reliability. 
Of  course,  on  a  flying  visit  it  was  impossible  to 
do  more  than  simply  to  glance  at  the  precious 
document.  I  make  one  extract  from  it,  which 
shows  that  the  author  was  a  keen  observer  of  the 
lower  animals  as  well  as  of  man : 

"  When  the  water  is  shallow  'tis  no  uncommon 
thing  to  see  a  bear  sitting,  in  the  summer-time,  on 
a  heap  of  gravel  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  not 


62  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

only  to  cool  himself,  but  likewise  for  the  advan- 
tage of  fishing,  particularly  for  a  small  shell-fish 
that  is  brought  down  with  the  stream.  In  the 
upper  part  of  James  River  I  have  observed  this 
several  times,  and  wondered  very  much  at  first 
how  so  many  heaps  of  small  stones  came  to  be 
piled  up  in  the  water,  till  at  last  we  spied  a  bear 
sitting  upon  one  of  them,  looking  with  great  at- 
tention on  the  stream,  and  raking  up  something 
with  his  paw,  which  I  take  to  be  the  shell-fish 
above  mentioned."  (October,  1729.) 

Of  Colonel  Byrd,  Doyle  ("  English  Colonies  in 
America :  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas," 
p.  348)  writes:  "In  1720  the  first  event  oc- 
curred which  throws  any  clear  light  from  without 
on  the  internal  life  of  the  colony.  In  that  year 
boundary  disputes  arose  between  Virginia  and  her 
southern  neighbor,  and  it  was  found  necessary  to 
appoint  representatives  on  each  side  to  settle  the 
boundary  line.  The  chief  interest  of  the  matter 
lies  in  the  notes  left  us  by  one  of  the  Virginian 
commissioners.  Colonel  William  Byrd  was  a  rich 
planter,  whose  multifold  activities  and  varied  ac- 
complishments recall  that  generation  of  English- 
men to  which  Virginia  owed  her  origin.  Educated 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      63 

in  England,  then  called  to  the  bar  and  elected  a 
fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  afterward  for  thirty- 
seven  years  a  councillor  in  Virginia,  three  times 
agent  at  the  English  court,  and  the  leading  spirit 
in  every  industrial  enterprise,  Byrd  shows  us  how 
active  and  brilliant  a  career  lay  open  to  a  great 
Virginian  landholder." 

It  is,  then,  to  Byrd's  industry  in  recording  the 
events  of  his  daily  life  that  his  own  well-established 
claim  to  historical  remembrance  is  due.  Besides 
this,  however,  these  same  labors  made  him  the  first 
American  historical  authority  of  his  times,  and  also 
the  preserver  of  a  knowledge  of  social  life  which 
but  for  him  must  have  been  in  great  part  lost. 
Along  with  his  high  sense  of  honor  and  a  most 
keen  penetration,  he  appears  to  have  been,  withal, 
somewhat  caustic  in  his  writings.  Thus  he  char- 
acterizes Edenton  as  being  the  one  capital  in  the 
world  without  any  place  of  worship.  This  mode  of 
expressing  an  opinion  reminds  one  very  strongly 
of— 

"  Tis  in  Annapolis  alone 
God  has  the  meanest  house  in  town."  * 


See  "  Colonial  Life  in  Maryland,"  E.  W.  Latimer. 


64  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

The  portrait  of  Colonel  Byrd,  and  also  that  of 
Miss  Eveline  Byrd,  hang  on  the  parlor  wall  at 
Lower  Brandon.  The  latter  must  have  been 
strikingly  beautiful.  The  impression  she  pro- 
duced has  almost  become  historical. 

Nothing  struck  me  so  forcibly  as  the  dignified 
and  frank  manner  in  which  the  war  and  its  im- 
mediate issues  have  been  accepted  by  the  property- 
holders  along  the  James.  There  is  a  nobility 
which  is  above  even  the  reverses  of  war,  and  if 
ever  in  my  life  I  felt  that  I  was  in  the  presence 
of  such  it  was  at  Lower  Brandon.  I  would  like 
to  say  more,  but  deprive  myself  of  the  pleasure, 
lest  the  sincerity  of  what  I  have  written  should  be 
doubted. 

When  night  came  I  could  look  from  my  cabin 
window  and  see,  two  miles  away,  the  lights  where 
the  negroes  were  fishing.  I  fancied  that  I  could 
hear  them  singing.  But  along  the  line  where  the 
woods  and  the  water  met  I  could  see  no  other 
light  made  by  human  hands.  The  fire-flies  flick- 
ered among  the  foliage  on  shore,  and  the  full 
moon  rose  out  of  the  water  to  the  eastward  with 
an  unusually  cold  red  light.  Scudding  clouds  and 
puffs  of  wind  lent  just  enough  of  weirdness  to  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      65 

scene  to  make  me  fully  realize  how  these  same 
shores  appeared  when  the  first  voyage  of  explora- 
tion was  undertaken  from  Jamestown  Island  to 
the  present  site  of  Richmond.  I  cannot  help 
hoping — nay,  thinking — that  a  new  prosperity 
awaits  the  Old  Dominion ;  that  her  soil,  restored 
to  its  original  fertility,  may  again  produce  bounte- 
ous crops  ;  and  that  her  scars  of  war  will  be  covered 
by  a  mantle  of  peace  which  shall  nevermore  be 
turned  aside.  ' 

I  was  particularly  anxious  to  secure  a  good 
photograph  of  the  Lower  Brandon  mansion-house. 
But  here,  as  on  Jamestown  Island,  the  two  places 
where,  of  all  others,  I  most  desired  success,  I 
absolutely  failed  to  obtain  the  views.  Uniform 
success  during  the  previous  season  made  me  so 
careless  that  I  did  not  attempt  developing  the  pic- 
tures until  I  returned  home.  Then,  when  too 
late,  I  discovered  my  failure.  The  mansion  is 
composed  of  two  wings  and  a  main  central  build- 
ing. The  wings  were  erected  first,  and  of  bricks 
brought  over  from  England.  One  finds  there  the 
same  alternating  order  of  red  and  black  bricks 
that  he  can  still  see  in  so  many  of  the  older  parts 

of  Philadelphia.      Subsequently  the  main  central 
e  6* 


66  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

building,  as  it  stands  to-day,  joined  the  wings. 
In  spite  of  the  injury  wrought  by  war,  it  is  a  most 
imposing  building.  Inside  all  was  once  in  kqeping 
with  the  exterior ;  that  it  is  not  so  now  is  largely 
due  to  some  unjustifiable  acts  of  vandalism,  I  am 
ashamed  to  say,  on  the  part  of  our  own  Northern 
troops. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  accompanying  the  ladies 
to  the  harvest-field,  where  Major  Page  was  super- 
intending the  cutting  of  the  wheat  crop.  I  found 
him  a  courteous  gentleman,  who  shook  hands 
very  cordially  with  me  knowing  that  we  were  on 
different  sides  of  the  recent  conflict.  I  cannot 
help  asking  just  here  how  much  of  the  Southern 
intolerance  of  Northern  men  may  come  from  an 
ill-advised  and  indelicate  aggressiveness  on  the 
part  of  the  latter.  I  make  no  assertion,  but  simply 
ask  the  question. 

There  were  on  the  estate  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  acres  in  wheat,  and  some  eighty  laborers 
engaged  in  harvesting  it.  The  major  suggested 
about  eighteen  bushels  per  acre  as  the  probable 
yield  of  the  one-hundred-acre  field  he  was  then 
engaged  upon.  In  the  thriving  crop  of  clover  I 
could  see  the  sign  of  a  restored  fertility.  The 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      6/ 

absence  of  this  on  much  of  the  land  that  I  visited 
along  the  James  was  leading  me  to  underestimate 
the  recuperative  process  which  is  taking  place. 

Lower  Brandon  mansion,  along  with  its  large- 
hearted  hospitality,  is  a  house  of  "many  indus- 
tries," as  one  of  the  ladies  remarked.  It  is  the 
post-office  for  the  region,  and  the  money  received 
for  their  service  to  the  country  is  set  apart  for  the 
church  there,  which,  like  many  others,  needs  all 
it  can  obtain  to  enable  it  vigorously  to  prosecute 
its  Christian  work. 

If  to  the  occupants  Lower  Brandon  appears 
like  a  "  Paradise  Lost"  since  the  war,  there  are 
very  many  who  hope  that  ere  long  it  may  be  a 
"  Paradise  Regained."  I  visited  the  grounds  early 
in  the  morning  of  June  22d.  The  cooing  of  the 
pigeons  and  the  whistle  of  the  partridges  were 
everywhere  heard.  Squirrels  played  among  the 
branches,  or  deliberately  sat  and  chattered  at  me 
as  I  passed.  Their  only  fear  seemed  to  be  when 
on  the  ground ;  but,  once  on  the  tree,  they  imme- 
diately stopped  to  inspect  the  intruder.  The 
Magnolia  grandiflora  was  in  full  bloom,  and  its 
fragrance  appeared  to  temper  the'  morning  air. 
Mimosas,  with  their  delicate  foliage  and  still 


68  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

more  delicate  flowers,  peeped  out  from  under 
the  taller  trees.  Honeysuckles  twined  everywhere 
about  the  mansion,  taking  possession  of  whatever 
they  could  embrace.  The  strange  association  of 
plants  which  originally  came  from  homes  which 
were  widely  distant  from  each  other  struck  me 
very  forcibly.  Thus  side  by  side  were  Scotch  firs 
and  mimosas,  and  over  a  vigorous  Chinese  alian- 
thus  twined  in  close  contact  the  English  ivy 
(Hederd)  and  the  American  poison-vine  (Rhus), 
each  appearing  to  thrive  as  though  the  land  and 
climate  had  been  made  for  it  alone. 

On  the  Japan  quince  (Cydonid),  where  the  fruit 
was  already  half  matured,  I  found  a  luxuriant 
growth  of  the  fungus  known  to  botanists  as  the 
Rcestelia.  What  is  the  subtle  discernment  among 
plants  which  enables  even  these  low  forms  of  life 
to  recognize,  and  to  appropriate  for  their  own 
nourishment,  the  suitable  life-blood  of  a  higher 
form  ?  Rcestelia  is  commonly  found  parasitic  on 
plants  of  the  rose  family.  To  this  the  Japan 
quince  belongs,  and  the  fungus,  even  though 
American-born,  recognized  at  once  in  a  plant 
imported  here  from  halfway  around  the  globe 
a  friend,  or  a  servant,  that  would  nourish  it.  It  is 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      69 

simply  another  expression  of  natural  law,  which 
operates  regardless  of  the  limitations  of  time  or 
longitude.  Whether  the  fitness  here  of  each  for 
each  is  to  be  expressed  in  terms  of  evolution  or 
of  direct  design,  it  is  none  the  less  wonderful.  I 
can  see  a  broad  system  of  philosophy  in  the 
teaching  of  Mr.  Darwin  and  some  of  his  leading 
conservative  followers.  The  wildest  guesses,  too, 
of  some  of  his  enthusiastic  disciples  may  prove 
true;  but  so  long  as  guesses  are  promulgated  as 
verified  scientific  facts,  they  only  by  so  much 
retard  the  very  cause  they  are  intended  to  aid. 
Take,  for  example,  the  soberly-stated  proposi- 
tion of  a  leading  writer  of  the  evolutionist  school, 
that  among  our  horned  animals  those  frontal  ap- 
pendages (horns)  came  because  of  the  irritation 
produced  by  the  butting  warfare  waged  among 
the  progenitors  of  our  present  horned  animals. 
The  form  of  logic  expressed  by  such  reasoning  is 
"that  it  is  easier  to  believe  the  proposition  than 
to  prove  to  the  contrary,"  a  mode  which,  in  spite 
of  its  convenience,  is  not  safe.  Even  the  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  statement,  derived  from  the 
order  of  appearance  of  these  animals  in  past  time, 
does  not  justify  the  mode  of  reasoning  employed, 


^O  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

or  the  positive,  dogmatic  teaching  growing  out  of 
it,  since  there  is  an  utter  want  of  direct  proof  of 
the  cause  producing  the  appendages.  How  many 
unknown  causes  may  have  led  to  the  same  result? 
It  is  this  toleration  of  probabilities  in  scientific 
reasoning  which  has  done  so  much  toward 
burdening  our  modern  writings  with  such  a 
load  of  false  conclusions. 

Not  long  ago  I  was  under  the  shade  of  some 
maple-trees  whose  more  than  half-matured  fruit 
covered  the  ground.  Among  these  specimens 
there  were  some  where  one-half  of  the  fruit  (that 
is,  one  of  the  pair  of  winged  seeds)  had  aborted, 
or  failed  to  grow.  Surely,  in  accordance  with  the 
old,  well-established  law,  it  must  be,  I  thought, 
that  those  half  fruits  will  each  be  larger  than  in  a 
fruit  where  both  halves  have  grown  to  normal 
size.  I  was  ready  to  prepare  a  note  of  it  for  a 
scientific  Journal.  However,  I  restrained  myself 
until  I  had  examined  the  facts  fully;  when,  lo! 
the  half-fruits  were  found  to  be  no  larger  alone 
than  when  grown,  as  they  should  have  done, .  in 
pairs.  This  is  not  a  fable,  even  if  it  has  a  moral. 
I  am  quite  willing  to  point  it  against  myself,  pro- 
viding some  of  my  contemporaries  will  seriously 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      jl 

ask  themselves  whether  they  have  not  been  as 
unfortunate  in  some  of  their  scientific  reasoning. 

Before  leaving  Lower  Brandon  and  its  associa- 
tions, I  must  call  attention  to  the  bullet-marks 
shown  by  the  illustration  on  the  eastern  front  of 
the  mansion.  These  are  but  a  partial  expression 
of  the  lawlessness  of  our  own  troops.  The  shots 
were  not  fired  in  battle,  but  represent  the  ungov- 
erned  lawlessness  of  warfare.  I  do  not  mean  to 
assert  that  our  own  soldiers  were  worse  than 
others,  but  simply  to  say  that  all  such  acts  as 
mutilate  property,  destroy  life,  or  in  any  way  in- 
jure an  individual,  unless  done  (as  these  were  not) 
in  execution  of  military  duty,  are  wholly  inex- 
cusable and  unjustifiable  upon  any  pretext  what- 
ever. There  is  a  still  worse  tale  .of  vandalism  to 
be  told  in  connection  with  the  same  building.  On 
one  .of  the  windows  there  was,  written  by  him- 
self, the  name,  of  each  President,  down  to  that  of 
our  martyred  Lincoln.  Associated  with  these 
were  the  autographs  of  many  statesmen  and 
scholars.  One  might  suppose  that  such  honored 
autographs  would  be  secure,  engraved  with  the 
diamond  on  the  glass,  against  even  the  great  de- 
stroyer Time,  and  that  they  would  be  both  sacred 


•J2  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

and  safe  among  the  soldiers  of  Freedom.  But 
they  were  neither,  for  an  unpalsied  Northern  arm 
shattered  the  pane  and  destroyed  the  roll. 

It  is  sad  to  see  how  many  of  these  old  estates 
are  changing  owners,  going,  though,  it  may  be,  to 
those  who  will  care  for  them  and  respect  their 
traditions.  After  all,  is  there  not  in  the  pride  of 
ancestry,  in  the  attachment  to  the  State,  a  prin- 
ciple which,  if  not  in  itself  pure,  unadulterated 
patriotism,  is  yet  a  sure  foundation  for  patriotism 
to  rest  upon  ? 

River  navigation  is  always  most  uncertain. 
How  often  we  were  "  headed  off"  by  the  wind  in 
some  days  of  sailing  on  the  James  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  say.  We  started  to  Brandon  in  a  calm, 
but  reached  our  anchorage  in  a  furious  little  gale, 
which  covered  the  river  with  white-caps  in  a  few 
minutes.  However,  the  tide  was  going  out,  and 
we  soon  found  the  yacht  had  nestled  down  into 
a  soft  bed  of  mud,  where  she  quietly  lay.  That 
was  not  a  hundred  yards  distant  from  where  an 
ocean-steamer  passed  an  hour  before. 

On  the  evening  of  June  22d  we  anchored  south 
of  the  Chickahominy,  and  next  morning  ran  over 
to  photograph  the  mouth  of  this  historic  river. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      73 

In  itself  it  is  nothing  but  a  good-sized  stream, 
opening  through  swamps  and  low,  pine-covered 
bluffs  into  the  James.  For  all  this,  however,  it 
has  been  the  scene  of  some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant events  witnessed  in  our  short  colonial  and 
federal  life.  Captain  John  Smith,  very  soon  after 
the  location  of  the  settlers  upon  Jamestown 
Island,  set  out  to  explore  the  Chickahominy 
region,  which,  though  nominally  under  control  of 
Powhatan,  was  directly  governed  by  his  brother 
Opechancanough,  who  from  first  to  last  was  hos- 
tile to  the  whites.  It  was  on  this  trip  that  Smith 
was  captured,  and  marched  from  village  to  vil- 
lage by  his  captors,  then  doomed  to  execution, 
and  rescued  from  the  jaws  of  death  by  Pocahon- 
tas.  This,  at  least,  is  the  legend,  which,  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  came  not  at  first  from  Smith  him- 
self. The  romance  of  it  never  was  heard  of  until 
Pocahontas  became,  after  baptism,  the  Lady  Re- 
becca. Here,  too,  is  a  strange  incident  in  her  life, 
which,  as  it  has  not  been  so  fully  told  elsewhere, 
I  will  quote  from  Doyle  ("English  Colonies  in 
America :  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas," 
p.  143) :  "  It  now  came  to  Argall's  ears  that  Po- 
cahontas, now  about  seventeen  years  old  and  mar- 
D  7 


74 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


ried  to  one  of  Powhatan's  captains,  was  with  the 
king  of  the  Potomac.  Argall  at  once  determined 
to  possess  himself  of  her,  as  a  means  of  ransom- 
ing the  English  prisoners  and  goods  taken  the 
previous  year.  With  this  view  he  went  boldly  to 
Japazaus,  and  told  him  that  unless  he  delivered 
up  Pocahontas  to  the  English  he  must  no  longer 
regard  them  as  brothers  and  friends.  This  threat, 
backed  up,  according  to  one  account,  by  the 
promise  of  a  copper  kettle,  proved  too  much  for 
the  fidelity  of  Japazaus.  Pocahontas  was  beguiled 
on  board  Argall's  vessel,  and  found  herself  a  pris- 
oner. Other  influences  possibly  were  at  work  to 
bring  about  a  union  between  the  races.  In  the 
spring  of  1613,  Pocahontas  was  baptized  by  the 
name  of  Rebecca,  and  married  to  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal settlers,  John  Rolfe."  This  was  just  about 
one  year  later  than  when,  as  a  captive,  she  was 
the  wife  of  one  of  her  father's  captains.  Was 
she  for  a  brief  period  a  widow  ?  One  year  later, 
Ralph  Hamor,  who  appears  to  have  been  both 
educated  and  influential,  went  to  Powhatan  with 
a  request  for  another  of  his  daughters.  I  will  not 
give  the  full  particulars  of  that  visit,  but  refer  the 
reader  to  Doyle  (pp.  cit.y  p.  145).  This  same 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       75 

Hamor  (apparently)  wrote  that  Rolfe  "married 
one  of  rude  education,  manners  barbarous,  and 
cursed  generation,  merely  for  the  good  of  the 
plantation." 

The  least  that  can  be  said  is,  this  is  a  pity  if 
true, — so  much  of  a  pity  that  we  prefer  to  accept 
Bancroft's  account  of  the  conversion  and  court- 
ship of  the  Indian  princess.  It  may  be  that 
Hamor's  own  unsuccessful  suit  had  somewhat 
soured  his  disposition  against  the  Indian  race 
and  manners. 

Still  more  history  has  been  made  for  Virginia 
along  the  banks  of  the  Chickahominy.  In  1616, 
owing  to  the  almost  exclusive  attention  which  was 
paid  by  the  colonists  to  the  culture  of  tobacco, 
there  was  not  enough  of  corn  for  food.  The 
Chickahominy  Indians  had  promised  a  supply, 
but,  seeing  the  straits  to  which  the  whites  were 
reduced,  refused  contemptuously  to  deliver  the 
stipulated  quantity.  This  resulted  in  a  fight,  in 
which  twelve  Indians  were  killed  and  as  many 
more  captured.  This  for  a  time  enforced  peace ; 
but  only  for  a  time.  The  Indians,  a  few  years 
later,  made  a  bloody  retaliation,  which  threatened 
the  very  life  of  the  young  colony. 


76 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


The  events  of  1860  to  1864  along  the  famous 
little  stream  are  still  fresh  in  memory.  At  last 
white-winged  Peace,  in  the  shape  of  trading- 
schooners,  go  up  and  down  the  Chickahominy 
giving  Northern  money  in  exchange  for  Virginia 
lumber.  We  may  now  well  believe  that  its  future 
will  be  as  quiet  as  its  past  has  been  turbulent. 

Prosperity  came  slowly  to  Virginia ;  but  it  did 
come,  nevertheless.  Bancroft,  describing  the  con- 
dition of  things  there  in  1656,  says,  "Virginia  had 
long  been  the  home  of  its  inhabitants.  '  Among 
many  other  blessings,'  said  their  statute-books, 
'  Almighty  God  hath  vouchsafed  increase  of  chil- 
dren to  this  colony,  who  are  now  multiplied  to  a 
considerable  number ;'  and  '  the  huts  in  the  wil- 
derness were  as  full  as  the  birds'-nests  of  the 
woods.'  " 

I  was  much  struck  by  the  patriarchal  appear- 
ance of  some  of  the  negroes.  One,  whose  white 
head  and  placid  countenance  was  especially  im- 
pressive, called  to  mind  the  lines  of  Keats, — 

"  While  his  bow'd  head  seem'd  listening  to  the  Earth, 
His  ancient  mother,  for  some  comfort  yet." 

Nights   in   June,  along  the   James,  apparently 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       77 

were  just  suited  to  the  fire-flies.  Rather,  I  should 
say,  these  bright  little  creatures  were  almost  the 
only  things  visible  after  dark.  They  would  crowd 
about  the  yacht  when  a  mile  out  from  land. 

The  bluffs,  along  the  southern  shore  especially, 
furnished  a  most  instructive  lesson  in  world- 
making,  stratum  after  stratum  being  piled  each 
above  the  other  in  a  very  striking  way,  their  hori- 
zontal position  suggesting  naturally  enough  their 
deposition  from  the  water,  and  then,  being  undis- 
turbed ever  since.  On  the  other  hand,  the  water,  I 
might  say,  gives  an  equally  interesting  lesson,  but 
one  which  is  not  so  far  advanced.  Approaching 
the  southern  shore,  just  below  Hog  Island,  as 
we  were  hunting  a  channel  into  a  little  creek,  we 
found  by  the  lead-line  that  for  a  long  distance  the 
bottom  was  almost  absolutely  flat.  "  One  fathom" 
was  the  report,  repeated  until  it  became  painfully 
monotonous.  The  lead  indicated  everywhere  that 
soft  mud  was  being  evenly  deposited.  In  many 
places  an  oar  could  be  run  down  into  it  several 
feet  with  the  utmost  ease.  The  bluffs  were  once 
just  as  the  river-bed  now  is,  and,  allowing  suffi- 
cient time,  the  future  student  of  geology  may  find 
the  now-forming  mud  flats  above  the  surface  of 
7* 


78  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  water,  and  point  to  them  as  being  simply 
another  page  in  the  same  natural  history. 

Jamestown  Island  was  the  next  point  of  special 
interest  below  the  Chickahominy.  Mr.  Brown, 
the  present  proprietor  of  Old  Jamestown,  received 
me  with  the  utmost  kindness,  and  allowed  me  to 
photograph  whatever  I  desired  to.  The  patience 
of  gentlemen  who  own  such  interesting  spots  as 
this  passes  my  comprehension.  But  once  during 
the  entire  vacation  did  I  meet  with  anything 
which  approached  a  rebuff,  and  that  was  under 
circumstances  which  were  fully  and  satisfactorily 
explained  afterward.  Yet  I  had  no  letters  of 
introduction  anywhere;  and  I  take  this  oppor- 
tunity of  saying,  once  for  all,  that  the  pleasantest 
memories  of  my  trip  on  the  JarAes  are  associated 
with  the  uniform  kindness  I  received  from  those 
upon  whom  I  called  for  information,  or  for  per- 
mission to  photograph  points  of  interest.  I  espe- 
cially desired  to  secure  good  photographs  of  the 
ruins  on  Jamestown  Island.  My  want  of  success 
has  been  explained  in  connection  with  a  similar 
failure  at  Lower  Brandon. 

Even  the  ruins  of  Jamestown  have  almost  dis- 
appeared. Fragments  of  the  old  magazine  remain, 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS.       yg 

and  also  a  portion  of  the  church  tower ;  but  these, 
with  the  cemetery  back  of  the  church,  are  the 
only  visible  memorials  of  a  time  and  a  settlement 
which  we  regret  have  left  so  few  monuments.  It 
is  evident,  however,  from  the  scattered  bricks  and 
the  faint  indications  of  old  cellars  and  the  like, 

that  the  settlement  covered  a  considerable  area.* 

• 

It  was  ill-fated  from  the  very  start.  The  unfortu- 
nate site  was  chosen  simply  because,  being  an 
island,  it  might  more  readily  be  defended  against 
Indian  attack.  It  is  strange,  however,  that  it  was 
necessary  for  the  friendly  Indians  to  warn  the 
settlers  that,  if  they  expected  exemption  from  such 
onsets,  they  must  clear  the  ground  and  remove 
the  reeds  or  tall  grass  that  grew  on  the  low, 
swampy  lands,  for*  in  these  the  attacking  parties 
would  surely  secrete  themselves. 

Disease,  growing  out  of  the  situation,  swept 
away  the  settlers,  and  proved  so  inimical  to  the 
young  colony  that  its  abandonment  as  the  chief 
point  was  merely  a  question  of  time.  Disaster 
after  disaster  was  associated  with  the  place. 
About  1609  the  condition  of  things  there  was 

*  It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  James  River  now  flows  over 
what  was  once  within  the  limits  of  the  town. 


80  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

disheartening.  Smith,  who  had  ruled  wisely  and 
firmly,  was  so  injured  that  he  was  obliged  to 
return  to  England.  Percy  succeeded  him,  but, 
owing  to  ill  health,  lacked  the  force  of  will  re- 
quired in  one  who  was  to  rule  over  so  turbulent 
a  community.  Doyle  (/.  <:.,  p.  132)  thus  describes 
the  situation :  "  The  Indians  slew  the  settlers' 
hogs,  and  cut  off  any  stragglers  from  the  fort. 
Ratcliffe,  who  had  gone  in  command  of  a  foraging 
party,  was  entrapped  into  an  ambush  by  the  In- 
dians and  killed,  with  thirty  of  his  men.  The 
outward  aspect  of  the  colony  proclaimed  its  state 
of  anarchy  and  distress.  Jamestown  looked  more 
like  the  ruin  of  an  ancient  fortress  than  an  inhab- 
ited town.  The  palisade  was  torn  down,  and  the 
gates  off  their  hinges.  Rows  <5f  deserted  houses 
told  of  the  mortality  which  had  thinned  the  set- 
tlement, while  their  shattered  timbers,  torn  and 
broken  for  firewood,  bore  witness  to  the  sloth 
and  thriftlessness  of  the  survivors."  Abandon- 
ment of  the  whole  place  and  embarkation  for 
more  promising  shores  were  seriously  considered, 
and  only  the  arrival  of  reinforcements,  with  fresh 
stores  and  with  provisions,  prevented  the  execution 
of  this  purpose.  Then,  several  years  later,  came 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       gl 

the  first  massacre  by  the  Indians,  in  which  three 
hundred  and  forty-seven  settlers  were  slain.  This 
assault  was  directed,  if  not  led,  by  Opechancan- 
ough,  of  whose  subjects,  it  will  be  remembered, 
twelve  had  been  killed  and  twelve  captured  in  a 
previous  encounter  with  the  whites.  In  1644  the 
same  inveterate  foe  instigated  another  massacre  of 
the  whites,  in  which  three  hundred  perished.  Then, 
among  its  other  reverses,  Jamestown  was  burned  in 
the  struggle  between  Bacon  and  Berkeley.  James- 
town was  abandoned  as  the  capital,  and  Williams- 
burg  named  as  its  new  location.  (In  1696?) 

The  most  interesting  ruin  of  Old  Jamestown  is, 
of  course,  its  church  tower.  One  marvels  that  a 
church  so  large  as  this  was  (judging  from  the 
ruined  tower)  could  have  been  erected  at  so  early  a 
period  in  colonial  history.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  to  the  men  of  those  times  (at  least,  to  the 
better  part  of  them)  worship  was  something  more 
than  a  luxury.  I  did  not  measure  the  tower  (as 
I  should  have  done),  but  should  say  it  had  a 
square  base  of  about  twenty  feet.  The  remains 
still  rise  say  twenty-five  feet,  and  are  entered  by 
a  fine  large  doorway.  The  bricks,  of  course,  were 
brought  from  England.  The  first  question  which 


82  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

naturally  suggests  itself  is  :  Why  should  a  spot  so 
full  of  sacred  and  patriotic  memories  as  this  is 
be  allowed  to  fall  into  ruin,  and  to  be  overgrown 
by  weeds?  Or,  worse  still,  why  should  it  be 
allowed  to  remain  so  ?  Alas  for  mankind  !  The 
proprietor  apologized  for  the  appearance  of  the 
ground,  and  said,  "  I  would  gladly  open  it  up  and 
uncover  the  graves,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  to 
do  so  would  simply  be  to  make  them  more  ac- 
cessible to  curiosity-seekers.  Men  come  to  the 
old  tower  and  carry  off  the  young  ivy  shoots ;  they 
break  the  tombstones,  and  nothing  is  so  sacred  as 
to  prevent  its  destruction."  From  what  I  saw, 
there  could  be  no  doubt  about  the  truth  of  his 
statement. 

Through  the  gateway  of  the  tower  we  passed 
into  the  old  graveyard,  over  what  was  probably 
the  site  of  the  body  of  the  church.  Here  and 
there  an  opening  in  the  rank  underbrush  and 
weeds  revealed  a  tombstone  or  sepulchral  slab, 
and  on  some  of  these  an  inscription  may  be  made 
out.  Time  has  dealt  harshly  with  the  lettering, 
and  in  some  cases  almost  destroyed  the  characters. 
There  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  effect  of 
tree  -  growth,  furnished  by  a  buttonwood  tree 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       83 

(Platanus  occidentalis)  which  stood  by  the  side  of 
a  grave.  Since  the  time  of  burial  this  has  grown 
into  a  very  large  tree.  Meanwhile  its  lateral  growth 
encroached  upon  the  horizontal  slab  covering  the 
grave,  and  also  carried  it  upward  slightly.  Hence 
the  stone  became  imbedded  in  the  base  of  the  tree, 
and  was  also  subjected  to  a  considerable  vertical 
strain.  The  two  forces  fractured  it.  Mr.  Brown 
informs  me  that  human  agency  aided  in  its 
further  destruction  afterward.  There  was  no 
date  to  indicate  the  age  of  the  grave. 

From  other  graves  I  copied  the  following  in- 
scriptions : 

"  Under  this  Stone  lies  interred 

The  Body  of 
Mrs.  Hannah  Ludwell, 

Relict  of 
The  Hon.  Philip  Ludwell,  Esq., 

By  whom  She  has  left 

One  Son  and  Two  Daughters. 

After  a  most  exemplary  Life, 

Spent  in  chearful  Innocence 

And  exercise  of 
Piety,  Charity,  and  Hospitality, 

She  Patiently  submitted  to 

Death  on  the  4th  Day  of  April,  1731,  in  the  52 

Year  of  Her  Age." 


84  VACATION  CRUISING   IN 

Another  reads  : 

"  Here  Lyeth  William  Sherwoo— d,  (?) 

That  Was  Born  in  the  Parish 

of  White  Chappel  Near 

London.     A  great  Sinner 

Waiting  for  a  Joyfull 

Resurrection." 

The  colony  was  then,  at  the  time  of  Mrs.  Lud- 
well's  death,  more  than  a  century  old.  This 
further  shows  with  what  rapidity  even  our  sup- 
posed imperishable  memorials  are  effaced  by  time. 
It  raises  the  question,  also,  Was  this  the  first  ceme- 
tery the  colonists  had  upon  the  island  ?  It  also 
makes  clear  that  removal  of  the  capital  from 
Jamestown,  in  1696,  did  not  depopulate  the  place, 
however  much  it  may  have  lessened  its  importance. 
Doyle  has  correctly  stated  that  the  life  of  the 
Virginian  of  that  period  was,  from  choice,  in  the 
country,  rather  than  in  the  town, — his  plantation 
interests  demanded  his  presence. 

There  is  probably  less  than  an  acre  inside  the 
brick  wall  surrounding  the  cemetery.  It  is  incom- 
prehensible that  the  State  of  Virginia  should  not 
have  made  some  provision  for  the  care  of  these 
grounds.  Some  other  States  would  have  pur- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       85 

chased  the  site,  and  established  such  a  custody 
there  as  would  have  effectually  protected  the 
place. 

A  few  hundred  yards  above  the  church  tower, 
along  the  bank  of  the  river,  we  came  upon  what 
tradition  calls  the  "old  magazine."  I  at  first 
thought  I  had  reason  for  doubting  that  this  had 
been  its  purpose.  However,  a  closer  examination 
showed  me  that  tradition  was  probably  correct. 
The  vault  and  the  thickness  of  the  walls  make 
this  the  most  plausible  theory.  The  illustration 
shows  that  the  building  is  now  almost  wholly 
undermined  by  the  water.  A  cypress-tree,  still 
farther  up,  stands  now  well  out  in  the  water. 
This,  too,  the  illustration  shows.  Yet,  some 
thirty  years  ago,  the  road,  I  was  told,  ran  by 
that  tree ;  hence  so  recently  as  this  the  magazine 
must  have  been  well  inland.  These  data  serve  to 
show  with  what  rapidity  the  river  is  encroaching 
upon  the  land. 

Williamsburg  was  laid  out  with  such  great 
anticipation  of  its  future,  and  in  such  extreme 
loyalty  to  the  king,  that  its  ground-plan  was  that 
of  the  letter  W-  However,  it  failed  to  meet  the 

hopes  which  were  formed. 

8 


86  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

The  long-cherished  idea  of  a  college  for  the 
colony  was  realized  there.  Doyle  (/.  <:.,  p.  273) 
says  of  it :  "  Meanwhile,  the  college  was  advanc- 
ing, and  before  Nicholson's  term  of  office  had 
come  to  an  end  two  sides  of  the  quadrangle 
which  the  building  was  designed  to  form  were 
completed.  A  few  years  later,  however,  a  fire 
undid  all  that  had  been  accomplished ;  and  when 
Beverly  wrote,  in  1720,  though  the  damaged 
buildings  had  been  restored,  no  further  progress 
had  been  made." 

This  institution  was  first  contemplated  in  1619. 
The  Indian  massacre,  which  so  shortly  followed, 
put  an  end  to  all  consideration  of  the  project  at 
that  time.  In  1660  grants  in  its  behalf  were 
made;  but  it  was  not  until  1695  that  it  was  actu- 
ally chartered.  Along  with  the  charter  the  Col- 
lege of  William  and  Mary  received,  through  the 
intercession  of  the  Rev.  James  Blair,  a  small  en- 
dowment also.  In  1776  it  was  made  surveyor- 
general  of  Virginia,  and  thus  received  about  five 
thousand  dollars  a  year  from  fees.  This  source  of 
income  was  swept  away  by  the  Revolutionary  war. 
Washington  was  examined  here,  and  received  from 
the  college  his  authority  as  a  deputy  surveyor. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       g/ 

The  objects  of  the  college  were  specified  in  the 
petition  of  Blair  for  its  charter.  "  They  were  to 
be  Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  Philosophy,  Mathemat- 
ics, and  Divinity."  Of  course  this  assumes  that  its 
chief  function  was  in  the  interest  of  the  Church. 
It  may  be  interesting  to  note  its  influence.  Bishop 
Meade  ("Old  Churches  and  Families  of  Virginia," 
vol.  i.  p.  28)  writes  of  this  College  of  William  and 
Mary  in  1811 :  It  "was  regarded  as  the  hot-bed  of 
French  politics  and  religion,  and  I  can  truly  say 
that  then,  and  for  some  years  after,  in  every  edu- 
cated young  man  in  Virginia  whom  I  met  I  ex- 
pected to  find  a  sceptic,  if  not  an  avowed  unbe- 
liever." From  this  we  may  infer  that,  so  far  as  the 
dogmas  of  religion  were  concerned,  its  mission  re- 
mained unfulfilled. 

Quoting  again  from  Doyle  (/.  c.,  p.  274) :  "  Yet 
we  may  well  doubt  whether  the  college  did  much 
for  the  colony.  About  thirty  years  later  one  of 
its  own  Fellows  pithily  described  it  as  a  '  college 
without  a  chapel,  without  a  scholarship,  and  with- 
out a  statute,  a  library  without  books,  a  president 
without  a  fixed  salary,  and  a  burgess  without  elec- 
tors.' The  College  of  William  and  Mary  had  but 
a  small  share  in  training  that  generation  of  Vir- 


88  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

ginian  statesmen  who  left  so  deep  an  impress  on 
the  history  of  the  world." 

Of  its  subsequent  history  we  prefer  to  say 
nothing,  save  that  an  institution  which  lost  a 
large  part  of  its  government  support  through 
the  Revolution  in  1776  would  appear  to  have  still 
some  claim  on  the  Union  which  grew  out  of  that 
struggle. 

Passing  Hog  Island  on  our  way  down,  we  ran 
in  along-shore,  and  spent  Sunday  at  anchor  near 
Ferguson's  wharf,  Which  is  nearly  abreast  of  the 
Point  of  Shoals  light-house. 

The  bluffs  looked  very  inviting,  and  I  expected 
to  find  something  of  interest  there.  We  had  seen 
a  blue  stratum  exposed  at  several  points  along  the 
river.  Here  it  formed  the  base  of  the  bluffs,  and 
was  very  suggestive  of  tertiary  deposits,  which  I 
had  seen  elsewhere.  However,  Lew  anticipated 
me  in  the  discovery.  He  soon  returned  to  the 
yacht  with  the  news  that  there  was  no  end  of 
such  things  (coral  and  fossil  shells)  on  shore.  I 
suggested  that  the  coral  might  have  come  there 
as  ballast  from  the  West  Indies ;  but  Lew  scouted 
the  idea :  "  There  is  too  much  of  it  for  that."  So 
we  went  ashore  together.  The  blue  stratum  was 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.       89 

full  of  shells  (pecten  and  its  usual  associates). 
Here  and  there  the  tide  had  undermined  it,  and 
masses  fell  to  the  tide-level,  where  the  shells  lay 
in  profusion.  The  coral  revealed  itself  just  at  the 
tide-line,  and  not  in  the  bluff,  but  out  in  the  water. 
So  far  as  we  could  see,  it  was  there  as  an  immense 
mass,  from  which  we  broke  off  a  fragment  weigh- 
ing about  two  hundred  pounds.  It  never  came 
there  as  ballast.  As  to  its  origin  and  its  extent 
geologists  may  decide,  if,  indeed,  they  have  not 
already  done  so  long  since.  We — that  is,  Lew 
and  I — made  considerable  collections  of  these 
interesting  things  for  the  Philadelphia  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences. 

June  25th  gave  us  a  strong  head-wind,  which, 
with  the  tide  against  us,  made  the  run  to  Newport 
News  a  tedious  one.  No  stop  was  made,  as  we 
had  "  done  the  place"  on  our  way  up  the  river. 

Newport  News  appears  to  be  one  of  the  spots 
created  for  some  great  ends.  Its  high  situation 
indicates  easy  drainage,  and,  so  far  as  that  goes, 
freedom  from  many  diseases  which  curse  some 
neighboring  towns  which  are  built  on  lower  land. 
The  great  depth  of  water  along-shore,  its  accessi- 
bility (being  free  from  ice  the  year  through),  and, 

8* 


90  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

above  all,  its  being  midway  between  the  lands  of 
wheat  and  of  cotton,  are  factors  in  its  destiny 
which  indicate  a  great  future  for  the  place.  Add 
to  these  the  fact  that  a  strong  railroad  company  is 
erecting  buildings  so  large,  so  costly,  and  so  per- 
manent that  it  cannot  afford  any  failure  on  the  part 
of  the  place.  It  is,  besides,  quite  as  easy  of  access 
as  Norfolk,  and  has  advantages  which  the  latter 
does  not  possess.  Northern  energy  and  capital 
had  "  taken  hold,"  and  many  "  modern  houses" 
were  contemplated,  if  not  actually  contracted  for. 
Most  of  the  buildings  erected  when  we  were 
there  were  of  the  class  that  suggested  the  name 
"Shanty-town"  naturally  enough.  Their  tempo- 
rary character,  the  inmates,  and  the  proportion  of 
bar-rooms  were  strong  reminders  of  some  new 
Western  towns  I  had  seen;  but,  like  them,  New- 
port News  bids  fair  to  grow  into  something  better. 
The  push  and  energy  of  the  new  West,  however, 
were  in  striking  contrast  when  placed  alongside 
of  the  ways  of  the  old  South.  It  is  strange  in- 
deed that  this,  the  first  river  region  of  the  conti- 
nent actually  settled  in  by  an  English-speaking 
population,  should  be  about  the  last  to  feel  the 
awakening  of  a  real  active  life.  Were  I  a  young 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      gi 

man  seeking  a  home,  with  the  privilege  of  choos- 
ing between  the  West  and  the  James  River  region, 
I  should  decide  in  favor  of  the  latter.  I  offer  no 
advice  to  others  in  this  matter,  but  what  I  have 
written  represents  my  own  views  upon  the  sub- 
ject. I  make  the  statement,  too,  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  unhealthfulness  of  the  region ; 
but  remember,  at  the  same  time  (leaving  Indiana, 
Illinois,  and  portions  of  Ohio  out  of  the  question), 
that  the  Juniata  Valley  of  this  State  (Pennsylva- 
nia) was  once  as  bad  as  the  valley  of  the  James  is 
to-day. 

The  name  Newport  News  is  still  full  of  stir- 
ring memories.  For  one  short  day  the  victory 
gained  by  the  "  Merrimac"  ("  Virginia")  awakened 
hopes  among  the  Confederates  which  must  have 
been  bright, — the  more  so  as  all  that  had  been 
expected  of  the  new  ironclad  was  far  more  than 
realized  in  her  combat  with  our  wooden  vessels. 
These  hopes  were  but  bright  illusions,  for  the 
very  next  day  the  "  Monitor"  turned  the  tide  of 
victory  against  the  soldiers  and  the  sailors  of 
the  South. 

Besides  the  memorable  naval  battle  associated 
with  Newport  News,  it  and  the  whole  northern 


92  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

shore  were  closely  connected  with  our  campaigns 
against  Richmond ;  just  as  Norfolk  and  the  south- 
ern shore  were  with  the  defensive  operations  going 
on  at  the  same  time  on  the  part  of  the  Confeder- 
ates. 

FORTRESS  MONROE  AND  HAMPTON. — We  an- 
chored on  the  evening  of  the  25th  of  June  in 
Hampton  Creek,  among  "  oyster-pungies"  and 
fishing-canoes.  Negro  life  appears  here,  I  may 
say,  certainly  in  a  most  characteristic  form ;  pos- 
sibly, too,  I  may  add,  after  considering  all  its  ob- 
stacles, in  a  most  promising  form.  Evidently  very 
much  of  the  old  spirit — the  war  of  the  races — is 
still  found  in  certain  quarters  in  Hampton.  "Nig- 
ger, light  that  lamp !"  was  the  order  given  in  a 
store  of  the  village  to  a  colored  man  of  the  estab- 
lishment. The  fact  that  it  was  silently  obeyed 
would  probably  indicate  that  it  was  neither  un- 
usual nor  unexpected.  I  will  not  add  in  which 
of  the  churches,  /  was  afterward  toldy  the  white 
gentleman  held  a  conspicuous  place.  However, 
time  is  a  sovereign  cure  for  many  diseases.  Prob- 
ably in  another  generation  such  specimens  of  lin- 
guistic pathology  will  be  studied  even  there  with 
about  the  same  interest  and  disgust  as  that  with 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


93 


which  a  microscopist  of  to-day  examines  a  section 
from  any  other  festering  sore. 

As  I  watched  the  water  in  the  night  from  the 
deck,  one  of  the  "  nettle-fish"  (jelly-fish)  passed 
by,  slowly  drifting  out  with  the  tide.  It  was 
brilliant  enough  to  be  seen  as  a  ball  of  phosphor- 
escent light.  We  found  them  so  abundant  as  to 
be  nuisances.  In  Mob-jack  Bay,  north  of  York 
River,  bathing-houses  are  built  for  the  express 
purpose  of  protecting  the  bathers  against  them. 

On  the  night  of  the  26th  of  June  we  had  a 
settled  rain.  Even  if  there  is  no  inspiration  to  me 
in  the  patter  on  the  deck,  it  is  always  pleasant.  In 
the  "  Marble  Faun,"  Hawthorne  makes  his  count 
say,  "  The  sky  itself  is  an  old  roof,  and  no  doubt 
the  sins  of  mankind  have  made  it  gloomier  than 
it  used  to  be."  It  was  a  leaky  roof  that  night, 
in  all  truth,  but  our  deck  was  better  than  the 
roof;  so  that  we  had  none  of  the  count's  gloomy 
philosophy  in  the  little  cabin.  The  next  morning 
it  was  still  raining,  but  I  could  look  out  from 
my  "  ten-by-twelve"  home  and  commiserate  the 
negro  fishermen  as  they  went  by  in  their  open 
canoes.  So  on  down  through  the  various  grades 
of  comfort  one  may  go.  I  have  no  doubt  that 


94 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


yon  negro,  clad  in  oil-cloth,  cares  nothing  for  us, 
but  is  extending  his  sympathy  on  down  toward 
his  poorer  comrade,  who  is  now  passing  the  point 
below  in  a  very  dingy  old  canoe,  and  who  has  not 
one  single  stitch  of  oil-cloth  between  himself  and 
the  rain.  Men,  in  comparing,  seldom  care  to  go 
higher  than  themselves.  It  is  best  that  they 
should  not  in  anything  but  virtue. 

But,  take  it  "  all  in  all,"  the  life  on  the  water  is 
a  healthy  one.  In  spite  of  rain  and  wind  and 
soul-tormenting  calm,  hardened  hands  and  sun- 
browned  face,  I  have  enjoyed  it  all.  It  is  simply  a 
return  to  first  principles, — a  vagabond  life,  if  you 
insist  upon  so  considering  it,  but  still  one  which 
most  men  some  time  long  for.  June  1st  I  came 
on  board  my  boat  painfully  conscious  of  having 
nerves  and  aching  points  all  over  my  body.  But 
after  a  month  of  aquatic  life  I  found  muscle  had 
the  nerves  in  subjection,  and  not  a  single  pain 
interfered  with  perfect  peace  of  mind  or  of  body. 

I  have  looked  in  vain  through  Bacon's  "  Wis- 
dom of  the  Ancients"  for  an  interpretation  of  the 
fable  of  Antaeus,  the  earth-born  giant.  This  enor- 
mous being  was  said  to  have  been  monarch  of 
Libya,  and  a  son  of  Neptune  and  Terra.  I  have 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


95 


often  wondered  why  the  wise  Baron  of  Verulam 
allowed  the  conflict  between  the  giant  and  Her- 
cules to  pass  unnoticed.  His  "  Novum  Organum" 
supplied,  so  thinkers  say,  the  pass-key  which 
opened  all  the  dark  chambers  of  mind  and  mat- 
ter. I  believe,  however,  that  no  single  thought 
as  to  what  the  fable  might  mean  ever  entered 
the  lord  high  chancellor's  dream.  Great  truths 
usually  become  plain  when  the  world  is  ready  for 
them, — at  least  so  nearly  ready  that,  when  started, 
they  can  take  care  of  themselves.  Modern  civil- 
ization had  not  in  1609  A.D.  brushed  away  the 
last  particles  of  soil  which  clung  to  man.  He  was 
still  of  earth,  a  little  earthy,  and  not  wholly  un- 
natural. He,  too,  as  well  as  Antaeus,  remembered 
his  ancient  mother,  knew  that  he  was  fashioned 
from  the  dust,  and  drew  fresh  strength  whenever 
he  pressed  the  dear  bosom  again.  The  little 
pigmy  cares,  to  Antaeus,  were  only  playfellows 
that  entertained  him  as  he  lay  full-length,  absorb- 
ing might  from  the  greensward  or  leafy  bed. 
But  these  same  associates,  with  whom  we  dwell 
not  only  by  day,  in  business  hours,  but  at  night, 
in  the  renewing  and  strengthening  hours,  have 
grown  to  be  the  Hercules  lifting  us  up  so  high 


96  VACATION  CRUISING   IN 

from  earth  that  neither  hand  nor  foot  nor  mind 
can  often  touch  the  soil  whence  all  our  early 
strength  came.  Only  once  in  a  great  while  do  we 
get  down  to  our  fount  of  life  and  vigor ;  and  then 
we  leave  it  strong  or  weak  as  we  have  lingered 
there  or  hastened  rashly  away  into  the  grasp  of 
Hercules  again.  How  much  these  summer-loi- 
tering hours  with  earth  and  sky  and  water  would 
renew  our  youth  if  we  would  allow  our  minds 
and  bodies  a  holiday  ungrudged ! 

When  a  man,  already  rich,  comes  to  endure  labor, 
through  the  heat  of  summer  and  through  the  cold 
of  winter,  simply  for  the  gain  it  brings,  then  he 
needs  a  force  to  drag  him  off  for  a  season,  to 
isolate  him  from  the  world,  while  he  can  contem- 
plate some  high  ideal  in  art  or  in  science,  in  philan- 
thropy or  in  religion. 

The  recent  address  of  Herbert  Spencer  in  New 
York  came  with  great  power  from  one  who  knew 
so  well,  experimentally,  the  evil  effects  of  overwork. 
He  told  us, — 

"  In  America,  as  in  England,  work  with  many 
has  become  a  passion.  The  savage  thinks  only  of 
present  satisfaction,  and  leaves  future  satisfaction 
uncared  for.  Contrariwise,  the  American,  eagerly 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


97 


pursuing  a  future  good,  almost  ignores  what  good 
the  passing  day  offers  him ;  and  when  the  future 
good  is  gained,  he  neglects  that  while  still  striving' 
for  some  remote  good. 

"  What  I  have  seen  and  heard  during  my  stay 
among  you  has  forced  on  me  the  belief  that  this 
slow  change  from  habitual  inertness  to  persistent 
activity  has  reached  an  extreme  from  which  there 
must  begin  a  counter-change,  a  reaction.  Every- 
where I  have  been  struck  with  the  number  of  faces 
which  told  in  strong  lines  of  the  burdens  that  had 
to  be  borne.  I  have  been  struck,  too,  with  the 
large  proportion  of  gray-haired  men ;  and  inquiries 
have  brought  out  the  fact  that  with  you  the  hair 
commonly  begins  to  turn  some  ten  years  earlier 
than  with  us.  Moreover,  in  every  circle  I  have 
met  men  who  have  suffered  from  nervous  collapse, 
due  to  stress  of  business,  or  named  friends  who 
had  either  killed  themselves  by  overwork  or  had 
been  permanently  incapacitated,  or  had  wasted  long 
periods  in  endeavors  to  recover  health.  I  do  but 
echo  the  opinions  of  all  observant  persons  I  have 
spoken  to,  that  immense  injury  is  being  done  by 
this  high-pressure  life, — the  physique  is  being 
undermined. 

*       9  9 


98  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

"...  Old  Froissart,  who  said  of  the  English  of 
his  day  that '  they  take  their  pleasures  sadly,  after 
their  fashion/  would  doubtless,  if  he  had  lived 
now,  say  of  the  Americans  that  they  take  their 
pleasures  hurriedly,  after  their  fashion.  .  .  .  Nor 
do  the  evils  end  here :  there  is  the  damage  to 
posterity.  Damaged  constitutions  reappear  in 
children,  and  entail  on  them  far  more  of  ill  than 
great  fortunes  yield  them  of  good.  When  life 
has  been  duly  rationalized  by  science,  it  will  be 
seen  that  among  a  man's  duties  care  of  the  body 
is  imperative,  not  only  out  of  regard  for  personal 
welfare,  but  out  of  regard  for  descendants.  His 
constitution  will  be  regarded  as  an  entailed  estate 
which  he  ought  to  pass  on  uninjured,  if  not  im- 
proved, to  those  who  follow ;  and  it  will  be  held 
that  millions  bequeathed  by  him  will  not  com- 
pensate for  feeble  health  and  decreased  ability  to 
enjoy  life." 

Holiday  grew  out  of  holy-day.  This  originally 
meant  a  day  which  was  perfect  or  excellent.  The 
history  of  our  word  for  such  a  season  of  recreation 
hardly  more  clearly  suggests  the  sacredness  of 
rest,  than  it  does  the  godliness  of  strength  which 
springs  from  the  holiday.  There  is  a  sin  against 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.      go, 

the  body  which  is  unpardonable,  because  it  leads 
to  death,  and  so  destroys  the  form  in  which 
creative  energy  has  thus  far  culminated.  Recrea- 
tion once  signified  restoration  to  health. 

Hampton  Roads  and  the  region  around  is  the 
veritable  historic  centre  of  the  country.  An  ac- 
cident gave  the  name,  Point  Comfort,  to  the  sandy 
point  where  Fortress  Monroe  now  stands.  Driven 
by  a  heavy  storm  in  July  from  the  Piankatank, 
Captain  John  Smith  found  his  first  secure  shelter 
under  its  protection.  Hence  the  name,  inspired 
by  gratitude.  But  how  often  since  has  the  same 
safe  anchorage  awakened  similar  emotions ! 

The  plans  for  French  naval  co-operation  dur- 
ing the  Revolutionary  struggle  were  made  here 
before  the  advance  on  Yorktown.  In  1813,  after 
being  repulsed  at  Norfolk,  the  British  vented 
their  rage  upon  the  unprotected  village  of  Hamp- 
ton. During  our  recent  war  the  possession  of 
Fortress  Monroe  decided  in  our  favor  most  im- 
portant events.  Indeed,  it  is  hard  to  say  what 
might  have  followed  had  this  position  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  our  adversaries.  A  glance  at  the 
map  will  show  at  once  how  essential  to  us  it  was. 
There  might  have  been  no  iron-clad  engagement 


IOQ  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

at  Newport  News,  but,  instead,  Washington  and 
Baltimore  would  have  been  exposed  to  immediate 
attack  from  the  "  Merrimac."  Here  the  first  slaves 
were  landed ;  and  in  Fortress  Monroe  was  issued 
General  Butler's  famous  order  which  declared 
slaves  to  be,  as  property,  "  contraband  of  war," — 
an  order  that  removed  the  curse  under  which  for 
two  centuries  the  African  race  had  groaned  on 
our  free  shores. 

To  speak  of  that  marvel  of  hotels,  the  "  Hygeia" 
(under  the  very  guns  of  Fortress  Monroe),  is 
simply  to  repeat  what  is  already  well  known. 

In  the  village  of  Hampton  is  St.  John's  Church, 
one  of  the  ecclesiastical  landmarks  of  the  country. 
It  was  built  in  1658,  was  in  ruins  during  the  war 
of  1812,  and  used  then  by  the  British  as  a  stable, 
and  burned  in  1861,  when  General  Magruder  fired 
the  town  to  prevent  its  being  used  by  the  Northern 
troops.  The  walls  are  built  of  bricks  made  in 
England,  and  seem  as  though  they  might  still 
outlast  the  centuries,  notwithstanding  the  trials 
they  have  endured.  I  am  indebted  to  the  present 
rector,  Rev.  J.  J.  Gravatt,  for  a  photograph,  show- 
ing one  of  its  sides,  in  front  of  which  is  a  group 
of  Indian  students  from  the  Hampton  School. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    IOi 

So  much  of  history  of  the  early  and  the  late 
events  of  national  life  can  seldom  be  found 
crowded  into  so  limited  an  area.  Yet  I  have 
only  alluded  to  some  of  the  striking  outlines  of 
all  that  has  been  witnessed  here. 

Still  more  important  history — at  least,  not  less 
important — is  being  made  now  on  the  same  ground, 
but  under  the  quiet  rule  of  peace.  Less  obtrusive 
by  far  than  the  stirring  events  of  the  past,  what  is 
now  being  done  toward  educating  the  Indian  and 
the  colored  races  must  leave  a  trail  of  light  in  the 
future.  It  will  yet  be  reckoned  among  the  first 
clear,  shining  acts  of  justice  toward  those  with 
whom  our  dealings  in  the  past  have  been  dark  as 
infamy.  If  we  credit  the  Hampton  School  with 
no  higher  results  than  those  of  an  experiment, 
thus  far  successful,  we  cannot  over-estimate  the 
importance  of  what  it  has  accomplished.  What 
is  to  be  done  with  the  Indians  ?  Probably  Hamp- 
ton and  other  like  schools  will  soon  teach  us. 

Its  great  mission  is  with  the  Negro.  A  curse 
follows  a  crime  closely ;  and  the  curse  is  looming 
up  dark  and  threatening.  If  slavery  was  once 
fitly  characterized  as  the  black  plague,  what  shall 
we  say  of  the  ignorance  it  engendered  among 


102  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

those  who  were  the  victims  ?  Emancipation,  irre- 
spective of  its  righteousness,  became  a  war  meas- 
ure necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the  country. 
With  it  came  the  right  of  suffrage,  as  naturally  as 
sunshine  comes  with  the  sun.  But  a  vote  is  a 
vote,  whether  cast  by  an  intellectual  giant  or  by 
a  mental  dwarf,  and  has  as  much  weight  in  one 
case  as  in  the  other.  In  this -is  the  well-recog- 
nized danger;  for  the  perpetuity  of  republican 
government  is  assured  only  as  long  as  the  ma- 
jority is  intelligent  as  well  as  honest.  Couple 
these  evident  truths  with  the  fact  that  the  rate  of 
increase  is  vastly  greater  among  the  uneducated 
black  race  than  among  the  more  cultured  whites. 
This  is  the  whole  truth  and  the  whole  danger, 
and  this,  then,  the  curse :  that  those  whom  we 
once  enslaved  and  degraded  threaten  to  subvert 
even  the  power  that  at  last  invested  them  with  the 
dignity  of  a  full  citizenship.  Shall  the  vigorous 
free  black,  with  his  enormous  rate  of  multiplica- 
tion, sometimes  vengeful,  usually  injudicious,  come 
to  doom  finally  the  very  institutions  which,  as  a 
slave,  he  has  already  so  greatly  endangered  ? 

Hampton  School  demands  not  only  national  aid 
in   its  projected  work,  but  national  gratitude  as 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS.     lo$ 

well.  Every  educated  colored  man  it  sends  forth 
is  a  pledge  to  the  future.  Considering  the  diffi- 
culties which  lay  in  the  road  of  the  institution, 
it  is  no  longer  an  experiment,  but  an  astounding 
success. 

Copying  from  the  official  report  of  the  school, 
which  bears  date  of  June  30,  1882,  I  find  the  fol- 
lowing statements  of  Mrs.  E.  C.  Dixon  : 

"  Of  the  389  graduates  and  37  Senior  under- 
graduates— those  who  left  before  the  end  of  the 
third  year — entered  in  the  new  '  Record-Book :' 
(males,  280;  females,  146;  total,  426),  I  have 
learned  that  326  have  engaged  in  teaching,  and 
that  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  whole — i.  ^.,319 
—have  made  teaching  their  vocation  since  they 
left  the  institute ;  three  are  licensed  preachers,  as 
well  as  teachers.  Over  ninety  per  cent,  have  en- 
gaged in  teaching.  Of  the  whole  number  27  have 
died ;  2  became  insane ;  leaving  397  to  be  '  kept 
track  of.' 

"  Taking  those  engaged  in  teaching :  Of 
these, 

"  276  have  taught  in  Virginia. 

46  "  «  "   North  Carolina. 

14  "  "  "    South  Carolina. 

1 6  "  "  "    Maryland. 


104  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

"  5  have  taught  in  New  Jersey. 

5  "  "  "  Georgia. 

4  "  "  "  Alabama. 

4  "  "  "  Louisiana. 

2  "  «  «  Florida, 

i  has  "  «  Tennessee. 

I  "  "  "  Missouri, 

i  "  "  "  Kansas. 

I  "  "  "  Delaware, 

i  "  "  "  Ohio. 

I  "  "  "  Vermont. 

I  "  "  «  Nebraska." 

One  can  hardly  help  noticing  the  overwhelm- 
ing proportion  of  those  students  who  went  South, 
where  they  could  render  the  most  signal  service. 
Such  a  showing  leads  inevitably  to  the  conclusion, 
that,  together  with  the  knowledge  imparted,  the 
institute  must  keep  constantly  before  its  students 
what  is  their  manifest  destiny  and  their  highest 
moral  obligation. 

We  owe  support  to  a  school  that  does  so 
much  toward  removing  the  national  danger  from 
ignorance,  and  substitutes  for  it,  hope  and  high 
possibilities. 

Besides  the  mere  matter  of  education,  in  its 
common  acceptation,  we  must  also  remember  the 
trades  which  the  negro  has  a  chance  of  learning 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    IO5 

there,  some  of  which,  at  least,  he  can  learn  in  very 
few  other  places.  Hence  the  tendency  of  the 
work  done  in  the  school  is  not  only  to  place  the 
pupil  on  a  respectable  plane  of  life,  but  to  enable 
him  to  hold  his  position  in  future.  The  full 
import  of  this  can  be  understood  only  when  it 
is  remembered  that  over  a  large  portion  of  the 
United  States  there  are  trades'  unions  from  which 
the  negro  is  systematically  excluded,  and  by 
which,  so  far  as  may  be,  he  is  prevented  from 
acquiring  a  trade.  I  am  simply  mentioning  the 
fact,  not  criticising  it.  In  truth,  bad  as  the"  prin- 
ciple may  be,  it  is  in  reality  no  worse  than  Wall 
Street  gambling  in  the  property  of  others,  or  than 
a  wheat  corner  in  Chicago,  which  speculates  in 
the  daily  bread  of  the  laboring  man.  Neither  of 
these  is  worse  than  the  others,  for  all  spring  from 
the  law  of  self-protection  first,  and  then  grow  into 
inordinate  selfishness  at  last. 

How  well  the  Hampton  work  is  done  appears 
from  the  following  extract,  taken  from  the  memo- 
randum -  sheet  accompanying  the  "  Report  for 
1882  :"  "  Our  printing-office,  book-bindery,  har- 
ness-, tin-,  wood-working,  and  shoe-shops,  will 
gladly  compete  for  work  wholly  on  the  merit  and 


106  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  prices  of  the  articles  made."  [Signed,  S.  C. 
Armstrong,  principal.] 

Two  large  farms  and  a  saw-mill,  besides  the 
above-named  industries,  give  to  the  willing  and 
energetic  students  further  means  of  supporting 
themselves  while  receiving  their  education. 

In  a  volume  like  the  present  it  would  be  out  of 
place  to  go  more  into  detail  than  we  have. 

The  Indians,  of  whom  there  were  ninety-two  in 
attendance  during  the  year  ending  June,  1882,  ap- 
pear to  be  mainly,  or  in  part,  at  -least,  supported  by 
the  government, — that  is,  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment pays  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  dollars 
apiece  for  each  of  one  hundred  Indian  lads.  This 
does  not  include,  or  meet  the  expense  of  tuition, 
which  costs,  besides,  about  seventy  dollars  a  year 
for  each  student. 

From  the  report  of  Miss  Isabel  B.  Eustis,  I  quote 
the  following  pithy  passages:  "The  success  of  the 
education  of  our  Indians  turns  upon  the  conditions 
which  await  them  on  their  return  to  their  homes. 
We  believe  in  their  ability  to  stand  in  an  ordinarily 
healthful  moral  atmosphere.  The  false  conditions 
of  life  which  exist  in  an  Indian  agency,  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  healthful  sympathy  or  wise  re- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

straint  make  their  task  of  stemming  the  current  of 
savage  life  an  almost  superhuman  one.  The  girls 
have  no  foot-hold  on  which  to  attempt  to  breast  it. 
The  boys  have  their  trades,  and  can  separate  them- 
selves from  their  old  homes  and  their  camp  life. 
There  is  absolutely  no  position  of  dignity  to  which 
an  Indian  girl  can  look  forward  after  three  years  of 
training,  with  any  reasonable  confidence.  There  is 
nothing  for  her  but  to  enjoy  or  suffer  the  present 
as  best  she  may."  ..."  Should  the  United  States 
government  ever  find  it  possible  to  keep  their 
treaty  with  the  Sioux  tribe,  which  provides  for  a 
school  and  suitable  teacher  for  every  thirty  chil- 
dren in  the  tribe,  the  way  might  open  for  the  solu- 
tion of  the  knotty  problem."  Such  schools  located 
among  all  the  Indian  tribes  "  would  give  honorable 
work,  full  of  inspiration  to  our  best  Indian  girls." 
Just  one  extract  more  to  show  the  other  side, — the 
absence  of  such  suitable  employment.  This  I  take 
from  the  report  of  Lieut.  George  Leroy  Brown : 
"  The  girls  must  be  prepared  to  stand  up  against  a 
'  sea  of  trouble'  and  temptation." 

There  is  one  more  aspect  to  this  question  of 
practical  philanthropy  which  is  working  out  a 
solution  of  so  many  social  and  political  problems 


I08  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

and  dangers.  Those  who  lead  in  such  movements 
are,  in  a  large  number  of  instances,  ladies, — women 
of  character,  culture,  and  refinement,  who  endure 
the  work  and  the  sacrifices  connected  with  it  from 
the  very  best  and  purest  principles.  Yet  to  these 
very  pioneers  our  leading  colleges,  in  most  in- 
stances, deny  the  advantages  of  an  education 
which  would  be  cheerfully  accorded  to  the  pupils 
of  those  ladies.  It  is  useless  to  decry  this  as  an 
act  of  flagrant  injustice;  just  now  our  eyes  are 
blinded  when  we  look  at  the  question.  But 
some  sort  of  moral  revolution  will  come, — nay, 
is  coming, — by  which  the  scales  will  be  removed  ; 
and  we  will  then  ask,  how  could  we  ever  have 
been  party  to  such  a  wrong  ? 

It  is  right  that  the  Negro  or  the  Indian  should 
be  admitted  to  the  best  college  course,  when  pre- 
pared for  it.  But  how  can  it  be  right  that  his 
teacher  shall  be  deprived  of  like  advantages  ? 

Do  the  ordinary  avocations  of  daily  life,  where 
the  sexes  mingle  without  restraints,  justify  the 
fears  of  our  conservative  college  rulers?  The 
day  is  probably  not  far  distant  when  public  in- 
stitutions, instead  of  being  judged  by  what  they 
think  of  themselves,  may  be  measured  by  their 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

aggressive  power  for  the  widest  usefulness;  and 
when  neither  age,  respectability  of  teaching  force, 
well-equipped  laboratories,  nor  crowded  library 
shelves  will  atone  for  the  sin  of  narrowness. 

The  Hampton  National  Home  for  Disabled 
Volunteer  Soldiers  is  well  worth  visiting.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  limited  time  at  my  disposal  prevented 
me  from  doing  so.  A  view  of  the  grounds,  as 
one  passes  the  water-front,  leaves  the  impression 
that  all  possible  is  being  done  for  the  inmates. 

Wind  and  weather  often  interfere  with  the 
plans  of  yachtsmen.  My  own  experience  did  not 
in  this  respect  differ  from  that  of  those  who  sailed 
before  me.  So  with  this  explanation  I  must  leave 
the  large  remainder  of  interesting  facts  concern- 
ing this  most  noteworthy  region  untold.  What 
Fortress  Monroe  now  is  need  not  be  stated,  for 
others  have  done  so  more  fully  than  I  can  do. 

A  delightful,  easy  southerly  wind  carried  us  up 
the  shore,  past  Back  River,  which  was  once  the 
scene  of  General  Magruder's  military  operations. 
The  ground  is  now  devoted  to  labors  more  peace- 
ful, more  odorous,  and  more  useful.  ^  An  estab- 
lishment for  the  extraction  of  oil  from  the  small 
fish  known  as  "  moss-bunker"  stands  in  sight  from 

10 


IIO  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  bay.  These  fish  swim  in  schools,  and  may 
be  recognized  by  the  dark  color  they  give  the 
surface  water.  The  refuse  remainder,  left  after 
extracting  the  oil,  is  ground  up  and  forms  the 
basis  of  a  fertilizer  which  is  in  considerable  de- 
mand by  agriculturists.  That  the  business  is 
lucrative  may  be  supposed  from  the  vast  number 
of  vessels  engaged  in  the  capture  of  these  fish. 
Almost  every  inlet  of  considerable  size  along-shore 
has  one  or  more  "  fish-mills,"  where  "  the  catch" 
is  "  worked  up."  How  long  the  industry  will  last 
at  the  present  rate  of  destruction  of  the  fish  is  a 
problem  which  we  cannot  yet  solve.  Those  en- 
gaged in  the  business  did  not  mention  to  rne  any 
scarcity  of  fish.  Indeed,  at  Newport  News  the 
James  River  appeared  to  be  dotted  over  with  the 
dark  schools.  Between  catching  oysters  in  winter 
and  the  fish  in  summer,  these  amphibious  beings, 
negroes  and  poor  whites,  manage  to  eke  out  a 
living,  such  as  it  is.  The  negro  workers  I  saw 
at  one  fish-mill,  which  shall  be  nameless,  were  as 
degraded  a  looking  lot  of  human  beings  as  I  ever 
met.  But  for  the  fact  of  their  speaking  English 
one  might  have  supposed  they  were  fresh  from 
the  "  Guinea  Coast." 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS,     m 

It  is  a  puzzle  to  me  to  understand  how  a  man 
can  labor  amid  the  filth,  the  stench,  and  the  as- 
sociations of  such  an  establishment,  and  still  retain 
anything  of  purity,  though  I  know  some  men  who 
do ;  nevertheless,  I  cannot  understand  it. 

As  noon  of  the  28th  of  June  approached,  we 
rounded  Too's  Point  light-house,  on  the  York 
River,  and  looked  long  and  eagerly  before  we  saw 
Yorktown.  A  mere  glance  at  the  bluffs,  which 
front  the  river,  would  leave  on  the  mind  of  an 
observer  the  impression  that  these  and  the  ground 
back  of  them  were  an  ideal  battle-field.  There 
is  very  little  concerning  the  place  that  remains 
unsaid.  If  I  were  obliged  to  offer  an  opinion 
at  all  concerning  the  town,  I  should  say  that 
neither  fire  nor  war  could  damage  its  appearance 
very  much.  Time  was  when  I  regarded  the 
surrender  of  Cornwallis  as  due  entirely  to  the  cour- 
age of  our  troops.  I  am  now  inclined  to  think  he 
wanted  to  get  away  from  the  place  badly  enough 
to  make  almost  any  reasonable  sacrifice.  I  have 
no  doubt  he  would  have  left  earlier  had  he  found 
it  possible  to  do  so. 

The  evening  of  June  2Qth  found  us  anchored  in 
Antepoisen  Creek, — that  is,  in  the  hook  made  by 


H2  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  northern  shore,  which  is  guarded  by  Rappa- 
hannock  Spit  light-house.  What  evil  genius  in- 
spired those  who  named  Mob-Jack  Bay,  Sting-ray 
Point,  Antepoisen  Creek  ?  Our  run  had  been  only 
about  thirty-five  miles.  The  wind  was  fair,  though 
most  of  the  way  very  light.  So  far  as  I  am  able  to 
say,  I  think  that,  during  the  month  of  June,  morn- 
ing and  evening  can  generally  be  depended  upon 
for  a  breeze  from  some  quarter  in  Chesapeake  Bay. 
There  is  almost  as  certainly  a  trying  noon  calm, 
during  which  the  sun  beats  down  with  a  most 
intense  fervor.  Squalls,  to  be  dreaded,  often  come 
during  June  and  July,  and  their  usual  time  of  ap- 
pearance is  towards  evening.  Our  harbor  in  Ante- 
poisen Creek  was  another  of  the  many  beautiful 
ones,  such  as  we  had  hitherto  found.  Near  its 
head  we  were  completely  landlocked  and  had 
about  two  fathoms  of  water  under  the  bow, — just 
such  a  place  as  one  can  sleep  most  soundly  in. 
There  was  no  fear  of  anything. 

A  brilliant  shooting-star  darted  across  the  sky 
in  the  early  evening,  and  after  it  there  were  several 
others,  but  none  so  bright  as  was  the  first. 

Lying  on  the  ground,  or  on  the  deck  of  a  ves- 
sel, one  becomes  acquainted  with  the  sky.  The 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE   BAYS.    II3 

longer  he  looks  the  more  unfathomable  do  its 
depths  appear.  The  most  distant  stars  seem  on 
the  hither  side  of  space,  shining  out  clear  of  their 
background,  and  leave  on  the  mind  the  sense  of  a 
great  void  behind  them,  dark  or  blue  from  its  vast- 
ness.  A  night  without  such  meteors  is  rather  rare, 
but  we  are  so  taken  away  from  them  by  fatigue, 
or  so  shut  out  from  heaven  by  slate  and  shingles, 
that  we  miss  seeing  their  fiery  trails  when  they 
journey  inside  the  limits  of  our.vision,  and  thus 
we  think  them  something  unusual.  Cuthbert,  the 
shepherd-boy  of  the  northern  English  lowlands, 
fancied,  when  he  saw  such  stars  sink  into  the  sea, 
that  they  were  angels  carrying  home  the  soul  of 
good  Bishop  Aidan.  Like  all  who  led  his  life, 
the  lad  had  never  come  to  think  of  the  stars 
simply  as  of  lanterns.  He  had  watched  them 
through  all  his  eight  years,  and  had  made  them 
his  friends, — remote  to  be  sure, — friends,  too,  that 
sometimes  hid  their  faces  behind  the  clouds,  when 
he  would  fain  have  seen  them ;  but  still  they  were 
friends  with  some  good  mission  toward  such 
simple  folk  as  lived  in  those  trustful  times.  I 
have  companions  who  have  sought  wisdom  in 

the  books  until  they  are  pale,  and  who  have  lost 
h  10* 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  elastic  step  one  should  have  until  his  head  is 
silvered.  They  can  name  each  star  and  tell  its 
distance  from  the  earth  in  miles,  but  they  have 
never  laid  down  and  gone  to  sleep  while  looking 
up  at  them,  and  wondering,  not  studying,  how  big 
those  stars  were.  I  think  these  persons  have 
missed  an  element  of  education  which  would 
send  them  back  to  work  wiser  and  better  and 
healthier  for  their  gazing. 

A  zoologist  could  employ  his  time  well  on  the 
boat  some  days  studying  the  habits  of  the  an- 
imals. Swallows  come  and  sit  on  the  gaff,  when* 
far  away  from  land.  That  is  not  strange;  but 
that  anything  so  small,  and  withal  so  hated,  as  the 
potato-bug  should  venture  miles  away  from  shore, 
and  then  stop  on  a  vessel,  is  both  strange  and 
reckless.  We  simply  started  them  on  their  way, — 
with  the  hope,  however,  that  they  might  not  live 
to  plague  the  farmers  of  the  Eastern  Shore.  Off 
the  Piankatank,  as  we  went  down  the  bay,  my 
friend,  Mr.  J.,  shot  a  loon.  Dissecting  it,  he 
found  in  the  stomach,  undigested,  a  small,  slender 
fish,  whereof  my  other  friend,  Dr.  Bean,  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  writes,  as  follows : 

"  The  fish  which  you  sent  me  on  the  28th,  and 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    ^5 

which  I  return  now,  is  Siphostoma  fuscum  (Storer, 
Jordan  and  Gilbert), — the  common  pipe-fish.  It 
frequents  our  northern  coast  southward  to  Vir- 
ginia at  least;  northwardly  its  range  is  unknown, 
but  it  extends  probably  as  far  as  Maine. 

"  In  the  pipe-fishes  the  dorsal  fin  is  the  prin- 
cipal propeller,  and  the  body  is  held  obliquely  in 
swimming;  they  swarm  in  the  sea-weeds  along- 
shore, feeding  upon  minute  crustaceans  and  prob- 
ably small  detached  fragments  of  Algae.  In  some 
species  the  female  is  much  deeper-bodied  than  the 
male,  and  in  the  breeding  season  is  more  brightly 
colored.  The  male  has  only  a  rudimentary  anal 
fin,  and  behind  this  is  a  marsupium,  or  egg-pouch, 
into  which  the  eggs  are  received  from  the  female. 
The  young  are  developed  before  they  leave  the 
paternal  pouch.  The  brood  is  usually  large, 
considering  the  size  of  the  parent. 

"  The  graceful  movements  of  the  pipe-fishes,  to- 
gether with  the  peculiarities  of  their  embryology, 
make  them  extremely  interesting  animals  for 
marine  aquaria.  The  dorsal  is  usually  oscillating 
with  an  undulatory  motion,  its  margin  describing 
the  form  of  the  letter  S-  Food  is  sucked  into  the 
bill  with  considerable  force.  The  gill-openings 


U6  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

are  minute  and  situated  about  on  the  median  line 
of  the  body ;  they  can  be  wholly  closed  by  the 
operculum,  and  thus  doubtless  facilitate  the  in- 
ward movement  of  objects  desired  for  food. 

"  The  number  of  species  of  pipe-fishes  on  our 
coast  is  rather  large,  the  Southern  States  having 
a  much  larger  proportion  of  them  than  the  North- 
ern. The  whole  number  of  recorded  species  in 
the  known  seas  is  upward  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty.  They  prefer  warm  seas,  sometimes  enter- 
ing fresh  waters. 

"  In  some  cases  the  marsupium  of  the  male  is 
abdominal  instead  of  being  behind  the  anal.  We 
have  not  yet  heard  of  such  species  in  our  waters." 

"  Crabbed"  is  a  word  the  meaning  of  which  I 
should  enlarge,  and  say  it  is  a  senseless  pugnacity 
and  a  disposition  to  attack  anything  with  or  with- 
out hope  of  success.  This  I  would  deduce  from 
observations  at  headquarters.  Lew  brought  a  crab 
to  the  surface,  which,  though  the  well-baited  hook 
was  less  than  a  foot  away,  was,  nevertheless, 
attacking  the  lead  sinker  with  all  his  might. 
Probably  on  reaching  the  bottom  the  sinker  had 
fallen  on  his  back  or  touched  one  of  his  numerous 
appendages,  and  thus  excited  his  wrath,  or  he 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS. 


117 


may  have  attacked  it  on  the  general  principle  that 
it  was  an  intruder.  When  the  water  was  clear 
and  quiet,  looking  over  the  side  of  the  boat,  we 
saw  another  wrestling  with  a  fish  larger  by  far 
than  itself.  Their  odd  projecting  eyes  are  sharp 
enough,  and  ever  on  the  watch  for  something  to 
attack.  The  first  approach  of  an  enemy  causes 
the  claws  to  rise  in  aggressive  as  well  as  defensive 
warfare.  The  crab  is  a  mail-clad  bully.  Probably 
the  fact  that  he  is  mail-clad,  and  hence  more  than 
a  match  for  all  his  familiar  associates,  makes  him 
reckless  in  attacking  even  those  with  whom  he 
is  not  so  well  acquainted.  He  does  not  know  that 
a  falling  brick  would  crush  him,  armor  and  all. 

Crabs  serve  to  reinforce  some  ideas  one  occa- 
sionally gets  of  men, — the  less  brains,  as  a  rule, 
the  more  pugnacious, — that  is,  granting  that  all 
stomachs  are  equally  good.  I  am  persuaded  that 
an  angel  would  quarrel  when  suffering  from 
dyspepsia. 

Though  we  had  a  gun  on  board,  no  song-bird 
was  shot,  or  even  fired  at,  from  my  boat.  We  had 
every  morning  in  the  early  part  of  our  cruise 
what  was  to  me  a  sacred  concert.  Blackbirds, 
robins,  sparrows,  even  crows  and  fish-hawks, 


H8  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

joined  as  best  they  could  in  the  chorus  which 
was  sure  to  bring  the  sleepers  on  deck.  Is  a  man 
the  worse  for  having  emotions  ?  Less  than  a  year 
ago  a  gentle  mother  sat  with  a  suffering  infant  on 
her  lap,  and  she  promised  the  babe  that  when 
summer  came,  and  it  was  well,  the  birds  would 
sing  to  it.  The  promise  was  kept  sooner  than 
any  one  dreamed  it  would  be,  for  only  a  few  days 
later,  before  even  a  crocus  was  above  the  ground, 
they  did  sing  a  sweet  song  close  by  where  the 
tiny  form  lay  at  relst.  I  believe  the  spirit  listened 
from  beyond  the  clouds.  Since  then  their  notes 
sound  to  me  so  much  like  music  intended  for  the 
best  part  of  man  that  I  always  stop  to  listen.  At 
all  events,  the  soul  capable  of  such  enjoyment  is 
somewhat  the  purer  for  being  gratified. 

On  June  the  3<Dth  we  started  early,  hoping  to 
make  the  harbor  in  the  mouth  of  the  Patuxent. 
This  was  only  about  forty-five  miles  in  a  direct  line. 
Knowing  the  uncertainty  of  the  wind,  we  desired 
to  take  every  advantage  that  time  could  give  us ; 
hence  an  unusually  early  start.  At  first  we  had 
a  fair  wind,  and  plenty  of  it ;  it  was  right  "  astern" 
also.  Before  we  reached  the  Great  Wicomico  it 
was  "  dead  ahead,"  and  when  we  fairly  opened  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

mouth  of  the  Potomac  there  was  a  calm.  This  at 
first  was  simply  an  annoyance.  We  supposed 
it  was  merely  one  of  the  lulls  we  had  so  often 
experienced  before,  and  endeavored  to  comfort 
ourselves  by  such  philosophy.  Hour  after  hour 
passed,  but  no  wind  came.  The  tide  was  carrying 
us  down  and  across  the  bay, — just  the  direction 
we  did  not  want  to  go.  Then  annoyance  deepened 
into  exasperation  (senseless,  to  be  sure),  as  the 
little  yacht  was  tossed  like  a  feather  on  the  heavy 
swell.  There  was  not  a  trace  of  air.  Never  be- 
fore did  I  so  fully  realize  what  was  meant  by  a 
dead  calm.  With  each  lurch  of  the  boat  the 
blocks  creaked  and  the  sails  flapped  heavily  from 
side  to  side.  The  heat  was  more  than  the  word 
intense  implies ;  it  was  scorching,  and  the  glare 
from  the  superheated  deck  was  almost  unendur- 
able. What  was  the  pleasure  in  yachting  ?  None, 
under  such  circumstances.  So  that  entire  day 
passed.  Exasperation  gave  place  to, — well,  call 
it  fear.  "  All  men  are  cowards  at  times,"  and  it 
only  renders  matters  worse  to  add  to  the  weak- 
ness of  fear  the  sin  of  prevarication. 

All  day  the  barometer  had  been  going  down. 
It  was  certain  that  a  storm  was  impending.     East, 


120  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

south,  and  west  were  filled  with  heavy  clouds. 
We  could  hear  the  heavy  thunder,  and  see  the  vivid 
lightning  flash  across  the  sky.  Would  there  be 
enough  of  wind  before  the  squall  burst  upon  us  to 
enable  us  to  make  some  harbor?  Or  must  we 
too  stand  the  onset  in  our  little  boat  out  in  the 
middle  of  the  bay?  These  questions  were  never 
uttered,  though  I  am  quite  sure  they  were  in- 
wardly asked  by  both  Lew  and  myself. 

Later  in  the  afternoon  a  slight  wind  was  seen 
coming  over  the  water  towards  us  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Potomac.  It  came  so  slowly  that  we  feared 
it  would  die  away  before  reaching  us.  After  what 
appeared  like  an  age  it  began  to  be  felt,  first  fan- 
ning our  cheeks,  then  filling  our  sails;  and  in  a 
few  minutes  more  we  were  quietly  slipping  through 
the  water,  back  toward  Great  Wicomico,  which  we 
had  passed  early  in  the  morning.  This,  to  be  sure, 
was  not  where  we  wanted  to  go,  but  choice  was 
lost  in  thankfulness  to  reach  any  harbor.  In 
two  hours,  just  as  darkness  had  fairly  settled 
around  us,  we  let  our  anchor  go  in  a  quiet  arm  of 
the  Great  Wicomico.  It  was  a  lovely,  secluded 
little  bay,  in  full  sight  of  one  of  the  greatest  fish- 
ing establishments  of  the  Chesapeake, — a  perfect, 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS,     I2i 

"  restful"  place  that  we  had  found  for  the  morrow, 
which  was  the  Sabbath. 

During  the  night  the  storm  came;  and,  as  we 
heard  the  wind  whistling  fiercely  through  the  rig- 
ging, and  felt  the  yach't  rocking  on  the  waves,  we 
thought  even  kindly  of  the  breeze  which  had  car- 
ried us  away  from  our  destination,  but  into  perfect 
safety. 

I  have  related  the  experience  of  that  day  to 
show  the  most  dismal  side  of  yachting  by  sail. 
If  one  has  a  long  purse  and  no  end  of  generosity, 
if  he  is  willing  to  keep  a  floating  home  for  sailors, 
to  be  simply  a  passenger  on  his  own  boat,  to  go 
when  and  where  his  sailing-master  directs,  then  a 
large  steam-yacht  is  much  better.  I  was  yachting 
under  other  circumstances  and  with  other  objects 
in  view;  and,  furthermore,  as  the  season  wore 
along,  I  gradually  came  to  prefer  risking  my 
boat  under  my  own  directions  than  to  accept 
what  greater  skill  the  presence  of  a  sailing-mas- 
ter might  bring.  I  will  simply  add :  yacht-owner, 
learn  the  rudiments,  go  slowly,  but  command  your 
own  craft.  If  there  be  any  manhood  in  the  sport, 
that  will  bring  it  out.  If  there  is  not,  then  it  were 
better  abandoned. 

7  II 


122  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

I  must,  however,  say  this :  if  one  can  find  an- 
other Lew,  then  he  is  fortunate.  Lew  is  equal 
to  any  emergency  likely  to  occur  on  a  small 
craft.  Entering  the  harbor  I  have  described,  our 
boat,  though  drawing  only  a  little  over  two  feet  of 
water,  grounded.  While  I  was  off  in  the  yawl- 
boat  hunting  the  channel  he  jumped  overboard 
and  pushed  the  yacht  into  deep  water.  By  the 
time  she  was  fairly  floating  I  had  found  the  chan- 
nel, and  we  were  soon  in  our  Sunday  harbor. 

On  Monday,  July  the  2d,  we  were  off,  and  with 
a  stiff  breeze  astern  soon  passed  the  mouth  of  the 
Potomac.  I  do  not  know  whether,  or  not,  this 
river  is  usually  treacherous,  but  it  has  so  hap- 
pened, that  both  my  friends,  with  whom  I  have 
conversed,  and  myself  have  been,  as  a  rule,  baffled 
there,  by  the  wind.  By  ten  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing we  were  safely  on  the  northern  shore,  and 
soon  after  two  o'clock  were  at  anchor  back  of 
Solomon's  Island,  in  the  Patuxent. 

We  had  passed  during  the  morning  from  one 
State  into  another.  Was  I  mistaken  in  supposing 
that  I  saw  greater  thrift  north  of  the  Potomac  ? 
A  few  years  ago  it  would  have  been  argued  that 
the  difference  was  due  to  the  greater  dependence 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    i2$ 

of  Virginia  on  slave  labor, — that,  though  Maryland 
was  still  a  slave  State,  yet  it  was  not  absolutely 
wedded  in  all  its  life  habits  to  the  enervating  curse. 
This  may  or  may  not  be  true.  I  shall  not  attempt 
to  decide.  I  cannot  take  leave  of  Virginia,  where 
I  received  so  much  kindness,  and  for  the  character 
of  whose  citizens  one  must  have  such  respect, 
without  bringing  out  the  early  relation  of  the 
mother-country  (as  judged  by  her  own  writers)  to 
the  perpetuation  of  the  system  of  negro  slavery 
in  the  colonies. 

Quoting  from  Doyle  ("  English  Colonies  in 
America,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas," 
p.  388),  I  find:  "  In  1719  the  Assembly  [of  South 
Carolina]  took  the  further  step  of  imposing  a  duty 
of  forty  pounds  on  all  imported  negroes.  Had 
this  measure  been  carried,  it  must  have  put  an 
end  to  the  slave  trade  so  far  as  South  Carolina 
was  concerned.  It  is  sad  to  think  that  such  a 
measure  was  frustrated  by  the  cupidity  and  jeal- 
ousy of  the  English  government.  But  it  had 
become  a  settled  maxim  of  colonial  policy  to 
allow  the  provincial  assemblies  no  control  over 
external  trade,  and  in  all  commercial  legislation  to 
regard  the  profit  of  the  English  merchant  rather 


124 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


than  the  social  and  industrial  well-being  of  the 
colonists.  The  proprietors  and  the  crown  were 
for  once  united,  and  the  measure  was  vetoed." 
.  .  .  "A  Virginian  clergyman,  writing  in  1724,  de- 
plores the  number  of  negroes,  and  the  consequent 
discouragement  to  the  poorer  class  of  white  emi- 
grants. In  South  Carolina  more  than  one  attempt 
was  made  to  stem  the  tide.  In  1678,  an  act  was 
passed  offering  a  bounty  on  the  importation  of 
indented  white  servants,  Irish  alone  excepted. 
That  they  were  designed  to  counteract  the  influx 
of  black  slaves,  is  shown  by  the  provision  that 
they  were  to  be  distributed  among  the  planters, 
one  to  every  six  negroes"  (loc.  tit.,  p.  388). 

Patuxent  may  be  called  the  dividing  line  be- 
tween the  low,  sandy  shore  on  the  western  side 
of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  bolder  bluffs  which  we 
find  more  common  on  the  upper  parts  of  the  bay. 
I  have  never  seen  a  more  beautiful  illustration 
of  h6w  perfectly  parallel  to  each  other,  strata 
may  be  deposited,  and  how  subsequent  erosion 
may  remove  some  and  leave  other  portions,  than 
the  northern  shore  of  the  Patuxent,  shows  at  the 
river's  mouth  and  some  distance  inside  and  out- 
side. Neither  have  I  ever  seen  more  tempting 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    i2$ 

building-sites  than  these  same  bluffs  offer.  High, 
dry,  fronting  on  salt  water,  with  no  fresh-water 
marshes  near,  such  situations,  one  might  infer, 
would  be  healthy.  For  aquatic  sports  the  harbor 
of  the  Patuxent  would  afford  abundant  facilities. 
I  have  no  doubt  game  is  abundant  both  on  land 
and  on  the  water  in  season. 

It  is  safe  to  say,  that  when  the  demand  for 
country  homes  becomes  more  common  among 
persons  of  culture  than  it  now  is,  these  bluffs  will 
be  in  demand  as  building-sites.  Of  course,  that 
will  be  when  facilities  for  reaching  Washington, 
Annapolis,  and  Baltimore  are  greatly  increased. 

From  the  Patuxent  we  crossed  to  the  Eastern 
Shore.  Early  in  the  morning  there  was  a  gentle 
breeze.  It  soon  showed  that  we  could  not  de- 
pend upon  it.  I  therefore  headed  directly  across 
to  secure  an  anchorage  where  we  could  hold  what 
ground  we  had  gained,  and  not  drift  hopelessly 
back  with  the  tide.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon 
before  we  had  any  wind.  A  large  schooner  that 
passed  across  our  bow,  going  up  the  bay,  had 
drifted  back  several  miles  astern  of  us.  Night 
came  on,  dark  enough,  and  we  were  obliged  to 
appeal  to  the  lead-line  to  aid  us  in  finding  our 


126  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

way  up  the  Choptank,  after  passing  the  light  off 
Benoni's  Point.  We  at  last,  fearing  to  venture 
farther,  let  an  anchor  go  in  Lecompte's  Bay  on 
the  southern  shore  of  the  Choptank.  Next  morn- 
ing, July  4th,  we  had  a  fair  wind  into  Cambridge 
Harbor. 

Sunday  morning,  July  /th,  I  rose  early,  at  half- 
past  four.  The  pure  glory  of  the  morning  im- 
pelled me  to  do  so.  Home-life  is  very  apt  to  rob 
one  of  the  cream  of  the  day.  Tired  by  the  duties 
which  the  acquisition  of  daily  bread  imposes 
upon  us,  we  shut  ourselves  within  ourselves  and 
brick  walls.  But  this  is  not  to  be  endured  when 
yachting.  The  windows  are  widely  open,  and  the 
earliest  streak  of  dawn  along  the  horizon  invites 
you  forth  to  receive  your  day's  allowance  of  health 
fresh  from  the  hand  of  morning.  Some  one  says 
early  risers  are  apt  "  to  be  conceited  all  forenoon, 
and  stupid  all  afternoon."  This  does  not  apply 
to  one  in  whom  the  aquatic  life  has  done  its  full 
work  of  regeneration.  Constant  intercourse  with 
nature  has  banished  conceit,  and  when  afternoon 
comes  he  does  as  most  other  easy-going,  sensible 
animals  do, — deliberately  goes  to  sleep  and  renews 
his  stock  of  mental  and  physical  vigor, — that  is,  if 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


127 


at  anchor.  If  sailing,  there  can  be  no  drowsiness 
by  day  or  by  night,  short  of  absolute  exhaustion. 
I  am  becoming  each  year  less  surprised  at  how 
little  real  good  the  majority  of  our  health-seekers 
gain  by  their  vacation.  That  they  reap  so  little 
benefit,  is  simply,  as  a  rule,  because  they  have 
not  earned  it,  and  hence  do  not  deserve  it.  The 
professional  man,  if  he  wants  the  vigor  of  the  sailor 
who  is  with  him,  must  do  as  the  sailor  does.  One 
new  muscular  fibre  is  added  to  another,  when  by 
exercise  we  throw  off  the  sloth-softened  old  ones. 

When  one  can  hardly  keep  his  conscience 
quiet,  when  it  reproaches  him  for  making  his 
vacation  unduly  long,  then  he  is  in  a  fair  way  to 
accomplish  something  notable  on  his  return  to 
duty.  This  sense  of  wasting  time  is  often-  the 
very  best  sign  that  vacation  is  doing  a  worthy  and 
beneficent  work.  It  tells  how  well  the  man  has 
become,  that  he  longs  for  activity  in  duty  instead 
of  longer  rest. 

The  jelly-fish  exist  by  thousands  in  portions 
of  the  Choptank.  They  fairly  swarmed  around 
the  boat.  But,  graceful  and  wonderful  as  they 
were  to  watch,  they  were  nevertheless  a  nuisance, 
inasmuch  as  the  daily  bath  was  often  postponed 


I28  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

because  of  them  and  their  merited  title,  "sea- 
nettles."  The  mode  of  reproduction  of  these  soft 
animals  is  wonderful,  and  when  first  fully  made 
known  sounded  almost  as  strange  as  a  fairy  tale. 
It  has,  however,  been  written  again  and  again,  and 
is  in  every  ''  Elementary  Zoology ;"  so  that  we 
refrain  from  giving  its  details  here. 

The  Choptank  differs  but  little  from  the  other 
rivers  of  the  Chesapeake.  Almost  any  one  of  them 
would  afford  a  naturalist'  good  working-ground 
for  an  entire  season.  There  is,  however,  more 
monotony  in  the  country  bordering  the  Choptank 
than  in  that  along  the  Patuxent,  for  the  former  is 
nearly  a  dead  level.  Yet  to  me  there  is  a  quiet 
charm  about  the  many-armed  Choptank,  which 
makes  me  wish  to  spend  a  whole  vacation  on  its 
waters.  During  the  season  there  is,  for  those  who 
care  to  catch  them,  an  abundance  of  fish,  crabs,  and 
oysters.  And  during  colder  months  water-fowl 
congregate  there  in  vast  numbers. 

The  Choptank  has  for  Pennsylvanians,  and 
especially  for  those  of  them  in  sympathy  with  the 
Society  of  Friends,  a  special  historical  interest. 
Late  in  December,  1682,  says  Bancroft,  "  tired 
of  useless  debates,  Penn  crossed  the  Chesapeake, 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


I29 


to  visit  Friends  at  Choptank,  and  returned  to  his 
own  province  prepared  to  renew  negotiation,  or  to 
submit  to  arbitration  in  England"  ("  History  of 
the  United  States,"  vol.  ii.  p.  125).  The  difficulty 
alluded,  to  grew  out  of  settling  the  boundary  line 
between  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania.  I  have 
often  been  amused  at  a  statement  made  by  Alsop 
in  times  long  antedating  the  American  Revolution, 
— a  statement  which  has  all  the  characteristic 
truth  and  point,  with  none  of  the  venom  (or 
something  worse)  which  so  often  appears  in  the 
scamp's  doings  and  sayings, — "  He  that  intends 
to  court  a  Maryland  girl  must  have  something 
more  than  the  tautologies  of  long-winded  speech 
to  carry  on  his  designs."  The  brightness  and 
unaffectedness  of  the  modern  representatives  com- 
pel the  belief  that  sham  is  as  much  despised  by 
them  as  it  was  by  their  good  mothers. 

Cambridge  may  be  taken  as  a  characteristic 
town  of  the  Eastern  Shore.  To  those  who 
have,  as  we  had,  friends  there,  it  is  always  a  most 
delightful  place  to  visit.  When  we  say  that  on 
the  Eastern  Shore  one  finds  more  traces  of  the 
old  colonial  life  and  customs  than  elsewhere  in 
Maryland,  no  disparagement  is  intended.  On 


130  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  contrary,  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  the 
social  habits  and  the  hospitality,  which  form  such 
striking  reminders  of  earlier  times,  are  real  and 
most  sincerely  genuine,  and  are  very  certain  to 
be  impressed  on  the  memory  long  after  more 
formal  meetings  are  forgotten. 

There  is  certainly  a  great  future  awaiting  the 
Eastern  Shore.  The  climate,  soil,  and  situation 
all  combine  to  make  one  think  that  its  rejuvena- 
tion cannot  be  long  delayed.  During  the  past 
few  years  the  new  industry  of  oyster-canning  has 
given  some  towns  a  most '  extraordinary  impetus. 
I  do  not  regard  this,  as  it  is  now  conducted,  as 
likely  to  be  of  any  great,  permanent  good,  be- 
cause it  must  require  but  a  few  years  to  remove 
the  oysters  on  which  present  prosperity  depends, 
unless  oyster-raising  becomes,  as  it  may,  a  feasible 
thing.  To  this  we  shall  allude  later.  But  when 
I  remember  the  agricultural  capacity  of  the  East- 
ern Shore  I  think  its  future  is  certain,  simply 
because  the  rest  of  the  country  "hath  need  of 
it."  I  am  convinced  that  in  the  next  generation 
the  owner  of  land  on  the  Eastern  Shore  will  be 
said  to  have,  like  the  owner  of  a  rich  silver- 
mine  in  the  West,  "  a  sure  thing." 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.     1^1 

The  early  history  of  Maryland  reveals  some 
strange  modes  of  aiding  Church  and  State.  Think 
of  raising  a  church-rate  by  imposing  a  duty  on 
tobacco !  I  fear  many  sensitive  mortals  in  these 
days  would  wash  their  hands  clear  of  the  con- 
tamination caused  by  touch  of  the  funds.  Yet 
when,  in  1698,  the  Episcopal  creed  was  the  one 
recognized  by  law,  the  rate  was  so  raised.  Hawks, 
in  his  "  Ecclesiastical  Contributions,"  calls  to  mind 
another  striking  bit  of  legislation :  In  Maryland 
"the  vestry  of  Port-Tobacco  Parish  imposed  a 
tax  on  bachelors,  and  the  Assembly  confirmed  it. 
It,  at  least,  indicated  the  sense  of  the  Legislature 
that  it  was  a  luxury  to  have  no  wife,  and  that 
the  privilege  ought  to  be  paid  for."  These  are 
mere  remembrances  of  the  past,  only  alluded  to 
because  they  had  well-nigh  been  forgotten,  and 
because  they  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  changing 
phases  of  human  thought  and  morals. 

The  yacht  left  Cambridge  on  the  morning  of  July 
9th, — that  was  just  before  peaches  were  ripe.  Hence 
we  were  prevented  from  seeing  the  shipment  of  the 
great  peninsular  crop.  Peach  season  is,  of  all  times, 
the  one  in  which  to  visit  the  region.  More  infor- 
mation can  be  gained  then  than  at  any  other  time. 


132 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


We  could  notice  a  great  change  in  the  weather 
since  we  went  down  the  bay  a  month  earlier.  Then 
the  wind  appeared  to  be  continuous,  or  usually  so, 
in  one  direction  from  early  in  the  morning  until 
towards  evening.  When  we  left  Cambridge  we 
found  that  the  calms  we  had  experienced  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Potomac  and  in  crossing  from  the 
Patuxent  to  the  Eastern  Shore  were  but  the  first 
of  a  series.  From  Cambridge  up,  we  were  reason- 
ably sure  of  a  morning  breeze  (though  often  a 
very  gentle  one),  then  a  noon-day  calm,  then  more 
or  less  threatening  weather  towards  evening.  Not 
that  evening  always  brought  its  squall,  for  it  did 
not,  but  that  it  nearly  always  attempted  to, — if 
such  an  expression  be  allowable. 

Starting  from  Cambridge  at  9  A.M.  with  a  fair 
breeze,  which  died  out,  it  was  full  twelve  hours 
before  we  dropped  our  anchor  in  the  snug  little 
harbor  between  Poplar  Island  and  the  main-land. 
I  was  particularly  anxious  for  a  good,  rousing  wind 
that  day,  as  my  friend,  Captain  Thomas  Howard, 
was  with  me,  and  I  wanted  to  show  my  little  sloop 
to  the  best  advantage.  When  we  stopped  for  the 
night  it  was  blowing  hard  from  the  south.  The 
last  two  or  three  miles  of  our  run  were  made  before 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


133 


a  wind  under  which  the  yacht  fairly  staggered ; 
and  as  we  passed  over  the  shoal  water  in  the  dark- 
ness, before  reaching  our  anchorage,  I  knew  that 
if  we  made  any  mistake  and  ran  aground,  the  mast 
would  go  like  a  reed  in  a  hurricane.  In  spite  of 
the  wind,  which  whistled  vigorously  through  the 
rigging,  we  lay  down  in  a  most  comfortable  frame 
of  mind.  We  could  feel  the  boat  tugging  away 
at  the  anchor,  but  having  full  confidence  in  the 
strength  of  our  cable  and  in  the  holding  power  of 
the  anchor,  we  could  sleep  undisturbed. 

Though  I  am  one  day  late  in  doing  so,  I  must 
here  add,  William  Butler,  Jr.,  of  West  Chester, 
had  come  on  board  at  Cambridge  to  share  the 
luck  of  the  cruise  with  me.* 

Leaving  Poplar  Island  next  morning,  we 
threaded  our  way  out  into  the  bay  past  the  south- 
ern end  of  Kent  Island.  It  should  here  be  stated 
that  a  light-house  has  been  erected  within  a  few 
years  on  the  end  of  the  bar  which  "  makes  out"  from 
the  southern  point  of  Kent.  Outside  of  that  bar 

*  I  will  also  state,  that  owing  to  news  from  home,  Lew  was 
obliged  to  leave  me  at  Cambridge.  In  his  stead  I  hired  a 
colored  man  (Moses  Robinson)  for  the  rest  of  the  summer.  A 
more  faithful  servant  no  man  was  ever  fortunate  enough  to  have. 

12 


134  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

is  one  of  the  deepest  parts  of  the  bay.  My  chart 
shows,  for  a  single  point  there,  eighteen  fathoms. 

The  low  shores  of  Kent  Island,  in  spite  of  their 
monotony,  were  very  attractive.  Besides  this,  too, 
the  island  played  a  very  important  part  in  the 
early  history  of  the  country,  being  claimed  both 
by  Virginia  and  by  Maryland. 

In  1631  *  the  Virginia  Assembly  sent  a  sur- 
veyor named  William  Clayborne  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  island.  It  was  claimed  both  "  by  royal 
grant  and  by  actual  purchase  from  the  Indians." 
It  appears  to  have  been  occupied  several  years 
earlier  by  settlers  and  by  Indian  traders  from  Vir- 
ginia. Besides  its  fertility,  its  position  from  an 
offensive  or  defensive  point  of  view,  as  well  as  its 
value  as  a  trading-post,  made  both  colonies  eager 
to  possess  it.  Clayborne  was  a  resolute,  and  prob- 
ably a  somewhat  reckless,  man,  belonging  to  a 
class  still  largely  represented  in  our  frontier  States. 
Things  remained  in  an  unsettled  and  somewhat 
threatening  condition  on  the  island  until  the  spring 
of  1635,  when  Clayborne  took  steps  which  inau- 
gurated open  hostilities.  In  the  naval  skirmish 

*  There  appears  to  be  a  little  conflict  of  dates  between  Bancroft 
and  Doyle  on  the  Kent  Island  troubles. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND.  DELAWARE  BAYS.    13$ 

which  ensued,  three  Virginians   and   one  Mary- 
lander  were  killed.     Clayborne,  being  worsted,  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  island.     Maryland  now  took 
possession,  and  Captain  Evelyn  was  made  its  gov- 
ernor.     The  inhabitants  being  mainly  from  Vir- 
ginia were  naturally  enough  hostile  to  Maryland, 
and  the  new  governor  appears  to  have  hacj  any- 
thing but  an  amicable  community  to  deal  with. 
Accordingly,  we  find  it  was  not  long  before  he  pro- 
claimed martial  law.     For  a  time,  at  least,  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  bloodshed,  though  it  was 
necessary  to  refer  the  case  to  the  home  authorities 
in  England.     By  them,  after  much  debate,  it  was 
finally  assigned  to  Maryland.     In  1641,  authority 
was  given  by  Maryland  to  the  Kent  Islanders  to 
wage  war  against  the  neighboring  "  Susquehan- 
nock"    Indians,   who    had    become    exceedingly 
troublesome.     At  first,  the  relations  between  them 
and  the  islanders  appear  to  have  been  of  the  most 
friendly  character,  but  only  for  a  time  ;  it  was  noth- 
ing but  the  inevitable  conflict  between  a  higher 
and  an  inferior  race  when  brought  into  actual  con- 
tact.    One  or  the  other  must  ultimately  give  way. 
About  1644  Clayborne  renewed  his  attempt  on 
Kent  Island,  and,  after  holding  possession  for  a 


136  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

year  or  two,  was  finally  ejected  by  Calvert,  of 
Maryland,  who  himself  died  very  shortly  after- 
wards ;  and  his  death,  as  Bancroft  tells  us,  "  fore- 
boded for  the  colony  new  disasters"  (/.  c.,  vol.  i.  p. 
192). 

From  Kent  Island  across  to  Annapolis  our  run 
was  short  and  pleasant.  We  reached  our  old 
anchorage  there  just  about  noon.  After  dinner 
Mr.  B.  and  I  went  to  the  top  of  the  State-house. 
When  the  gentlemanly  janitor  accorded  this  privi- 
lege, it  was  with  the  proviso  that  we  should  not 
use  our  pencils  or  knives  on  the  building.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  we  had  no  desire  to  leave  any 
kind  of  a  memorial  of  our  visit,  was  the  further 
fact  that  we  could  not  have  done  so  if  we  had  de- 
sired, as  previous  visitors  had  already  covered  the 
dome  with  their  scribbling.  Adventurous,  ambi- 
tious fellows  had  climbed,  at  the  risk  of  their  bones 
and  lives,  up  under  the  timbers  of  the  dome,  and 
there  marked  or  carved  their  names.  Who  can 
fathom  the  depth  of  human  vanity  ?  The  desire 
for  such  notoriety  implies  the  lurking  supposition 
that  some  one  will  care  to  read  the  inscription. 
As  a  rule,  the  less  the  importance  of  the  scribbler 
the  greater  the  desire  for  such  immortality.  To 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


137 


return  to  the  dome,  however.  Such  a  panorama 
as  we  had  there  spread  out  below  us  is  seldom 
to  be  seen.  The  country  was  looking  its  very 
best.  The  reaped  and  the  promised  crops  bespoke 
the  fertility  of  the  soil,  just  as  the  throng  of 
small  boats  engaged  in  fishing,  told  how  prolific 
the  water  was.  Undulating  hills,  with  valleys 
through  which  navigable  streams  ran,  made  a  per- 
fect lowland  landscape.  Mountains  near,  or  even 
remote  but  visible,  might  have  made  a  stronger 
picture,  though  they  could  have  added  nothing 
to  the  calm,  peaceful  perfection  of  that  landscape. 
I  could  have  studied  and  enjoyed  it  day  after  day 
without  weariness. 

The  evening  of  the  nth  of  July  found  us  in 
Chester  River,  after  a  most  wearisome  drift  across 
and  up  the  bay.  About  four  P.M.  dark  clouds 
came  up  in  the  south,  and,  anticipating  a  blow, 
we  lowered  away  our  sail  to  take  in  a  double  reef. 
This  was  hardly  done  before  the  squall  was  upon 
us.  In  a  few  minutes  we  had,  for  the  river,  very 
high  waves,  and,  more  than  all,  found  that  we  had 
a  lee-shore  much  nearer  than  we  liked.  However, 
the  vessel  carried  her  sail  well,  and  we  "  clawed 
off"  in  good  style. 

12* 


1 38  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

Queenstown,  in  the  southern  bend  of  the  river, 
was  where  we  desired  to  anchor  for  the  night. 
We  succeeded,  after  getting  aground,  in  working 
our  way  into  the  little  harbor  through  a  pro- 
vokingly  narrow  channel.  The  names  of  the 
towns  on  the  Eastern  Shore  are  strikingly  sug- 
gestive of  Old  England :  Queenstown,  Oxford, 
Cambridge,  Easton,  Chester,  all  indicate  pride 
in,  and  affection  for,  the  mother-country. 

Sometimes  for  weeks  the  yachtsman  has  to  do 
almost  constantly  with  calm  or  squall,  and  the 
alternatives  narrow  down  to  drifting  or  scudding. 
We  apparently  had  entered  upon  one  of  those 
trying  periods.  As  we  came  out  of  Chester  River, 
there  was  a  bare  suspicion  of  wind.  No  one  could 
say  where  it  came  from, — first  south,  then  west, 
then  nowhere.  After  exercise  of  great  patience 
and  muscle  we  had  worked,  by  three  P.M.,  out  into 
the  bay  again.  Meanwhile,  the  clouds  were  piling 
up  dark  and  threatening,  and  the  falling  barom- 
eter told  that  beyond  doubt  a  storm  was  impend- 
ing. Together  with  these,  there  were  obvious 
warnings — there  was  a  peculiar,  hazy  atmosphere 
and  an  absolute  stillness — which  led  us  to  think 
that  when  it  did  come,  it  would  be  severe.  The 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


139 


cloud-bank  moved,  from  the  southeast,  west, 
then  toward  the  north,  gathering,  as  it  went,  into 
a  heavy,  blue-gray  or  lead-colored  (but  not 
black)  mass.  There  is  something  in  waiting  for 
such  an  onset  not  unlike  the  feeling  with  which 
the  soldier  waits  for  an  enemy's  charge.  It  was 
certain  to  come,  and  it  was  certain  to  be  full  of 
danger.  Those  who-  can  best  control  their  feelings 
are  the  most  fortunate.  The  man  who  under  such 
circumstances  boasts  that  he  has  no  fear  is  not  so 
much  to  be  envied  for  his  supposed  fortitude  as 
pitied  for  his  lack  of  truthfulness. 

There  was  a  large  schooner  which  came  out 
of  the  river  with  us.  She  had  headed  northward 
for  Baltimore,  and  we  were  endeavoring  to  enter 
Magothy*  River,  to  the  west.  First  we  saw  the 
schooner  take  down  her  topsail,  then  her  fore- 
sail, then  her  jib,  and  then  her  mainsail.  We 
knew  that  there  was  no  time  to  waste.  It  was 
evident  that  the  captain,  looking  to  the  wind- 
ward, had  reason  for  his  prompt  action.  So  we 
lowered  our  jib  and  put  a  double  reef  in  our  main- 
sail. We  hoped  to  carry  enough  of  canvas  to 
run  into  Magothy  River.  The  bay  was  still  as 

*  Sometimes  spelled  Magotha ;    at  others,  Magothy. 


I4O  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

calm  as  a  mill-pond  after  we  had  shortened  sail. 
But  in  a  few  minutes,  darkness  suddenly  shut  the 
schooner  to  the  north  of  us  out  from  view.  In 
an  instant  later  the  rush  of  the  wind  was  upon  us. 
The  stanch  little  boat  endured  the  tremendous 
strain  so  bravely  that  we  were  at  once  reassured 
as  to  her  seaworthiness ;  and  she  held  her  way 
toward  the  harbor.  "  Mose"  braced  himself 
against  the  tiller,  and,  though  a  powerful  man,  it 
required  all  his  strength  to  keep  the  boat  from 
luffing,  as  her  jib  was  down.  In  less  than  five 
minutes  the  waves  were  breaking  over  us,  and 
the  spray  dashed  into  our  faces  until  we  were  no 
longer  able  to  endure  it.  If  we  could  have  stood 
at  our  posts  the  boat  would  have  gone  safely  into 
the  Magothy  River.  But  we  could  not,  and  there 
was  nothing  left  for  us  to  do,  except  to  lower  the 
mainsail  and  go  to  the  southward,  under  bare 
poles,  before  the  wind.  This  had  become  the 
more  necessary  as  we  were  now  among  larger 
vessels,  all  of  which  were  scudding.  Hence,  if 
for  no  other  reason  than  to  keep  out  of  their 
way,  we  were  obliged  to  do  likewise. 

The  intensity  of  the  wind   did  not  last  more 
than  twenty  minutes;    but  while   it  did  last  our 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.     ^ 

speed  was  fearful.  To  make  matters  worse,  we 
were  towing  the  yawl-boat,  which  ran  up  on  to  us 
and  would  drive  its  iron-clad  bow  into  the  stern 
of  the  yacht  with  tremendous  force.  As  the 
darkness  "  lifted,"  we  saw  coming  down  astern  of 
us  a  large  schooner.  To  keep  out  of  its  way,  the 
jib  was  hoisted.  It  was  impossible  to  prevent  the 
yacht  from  "yawing"  when  she  rose  on  the  waves, 
and  then  the  jib  would  fly  from  side  to  side  until 
each  time  the  sheet  tightened  it  made  our  heavy 
bowsprit  quiver  like  a  reed.  Soon  after,  we 
hoisted  the  peak  of  the  mainsail.  We  soon  saw 
that  there  was  no  danger  now  so  long  as  we  kept 
going  before  the  wind,  for,  in  spite  of  the  high 
seas  which  followed  us,  not  a  drop  of  water  came 
on  board  after  we  headed  sputh.  The  buoyancy 
of  the  boat  was  wonderful.  And,  from  that  day 
forth,  I  felt  that  my  yacht  more  than  compensated 
for  being  slower  than  some  others,  by  being  safer. 
The  iron  ballast,  low  down  and  well  fastened, 
evidently,  was  just  where  it  was  doing  the  most 
good. 

In  an  hour  it  was  all  over ;  and,  under  all  sail, 
we  were  heading  for  Annapolis  Harbor.  We  could 
now  look  around  and  see  the  damage  done  by  the 


142 


VACATION  CRUISING   IN 


squall.  Several  vessels,  whose  sails  had  been 
split,  were  repairing  damages.  Others,  like  our- 
selves, were  hunting  an  anchorage.  Just  as  the 
sun  went  down  we  dropped  our  anchor  in  the 
same  snug  berth  that  we  had  left  two  days  before. 

Looking  back  on  this  squall,  I  can  now  only 
regard  it  as  a  small  cyclone, — at  least,  having  its 
revolving  character.  Before  it  disappeared  the 
clouds  were  again  back  in  the  south.  The  rain, 
though  heavy,  was  not  in  proportion  to  the  wind. 

Viewing  these  storms,  after  several  seasons  of 
cruising,  I  am  more  than  ever  surprised  that  a 
good  barometer  is  not  regarded  as  an  essential 
part  of  every  vessel's  outfit.  I  am  safe  in  the  asser- 
tion that  mine  never  once  deceived  me  during  all 
the  time  I  had  been  using  it,  and  that  it  has  often 
put  me  in  a  safe  position  by  its  timely  warning. 
Once,  indeed,  taking  advantage  of  its  indications, 
we  sought  shelter  through  a  gale  which  strewed 
the  bay  with  wrecks,  and  which  cost  many  human 
lives  within  a  few  miles  of  where  we  lay  in  quiet. 
It  may  appear  like  a  waste  of  words  to  urge  this 
subject,  but,  knowing  that  many  yachting-parties 
never  include  this  instrument  among  their  effects, 
I  wish  to  say  that  when  I  claim  small  vessels  may 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS, 


143 


undertake  long  voyages,  I  only  do  so  when  this 
instrument  is  on  board  and  all  due  precautions 
have  been  taken.  Anything  short  of  this  is 
simple  foolhardiness,  which  nothing  can  justify 
or  extenuate. 

"  Mose"  proved  to  be  a  character, — huge  of 
frame,  of  unbounded  good-nature,  and  possessed 
of  such  a  fund  of  unusual  expressions,  which  he 
used  without  the  slightest  regard  to  their  meaning, 
that  we  were  kept  in  perpetual  laughter.  His  pa- 
tience knew  no  limit.  .  He  would  sit  by  the  hour 
untangling  the  "  worst  snarled"  gill-net,  and  im- 
mediately go  through  the  same  work  again  if 
from  carelessness  or  clumsiness  one  of' us  tangled 
it  a  second  time.  "  There,"  said  he,  as  he  opened 
a  mass  of  knots  which  had  tried  him  for  half  an 
hour,  "  I'se  got  one  more  aggrawate  out  on  it." 
He  serves  to  illustrate  forcibly  what  education  is 
doing  for  the  colored  people.  "  Ef  I  only  had  the 
larnin'  my  brother  has  I'd  be  satisfied."  The 
brother  is  younger  than  "  Mose,"  and  conse- 
quently his  school-days  came  in  later,  more  fortu- 
nate times.  Under  my  tuition  he  wrestled  with  the 
alphabet  and  with  the  task  of  writing  his  name. 
His  success  will  be  measured  entirely  by  his  per- 


144  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

severance.  His  respect  for  the  barometer  is  in- 
finite. "  Dem  little  tell-tales, — I'se  seed  'em  before. 
It's  time  to  hunt,  a  harber  when  dey  says  so." 
His  cooking  is  cleanly  done,  and  the  galley  is 
always  in  order.  Both  of  these  features  are  much 
more  than  mere  taste.  They  make  yachting  more 
comfortable,  and  even  make  our  simple  fare  more 
homelike. 

The  day  after  the  squall  we  started  again  to 
go  up  the  bay.  Leaving  Annapolis  early  in  the 
morning,  the  breeze,  though  ahead,  was  promising 
enough,  so  far  as  its  strength  was  concerned,  but 
on  our  very  first  tack  it  died  away  entirely,  and  we 
drifted  hopelessly.  About  two  o'clock  it  revived 
just  a  little,  and  we  headed  for  Magothy  River. 
By  dint  of  hard  rowing,  we  at  last  rounded  Sandy 
Point,  and  then  reached  the  mouth  of  the  river. 
Then  turning  south  into  Deep  Creek  we  anchored 
for  the  night.  For  small  craft,  a  more  desirable 
haven  than  this  could  not  well  be  found.  Later 
in  the  evening  I  discovered  that  the  water  was  as 
well  stocked  with  pickerel  as  the  shore  was  with 
wood-ticks.  The  channel  had  from  six  to  eight 
feet  of  water  in  it,  but  along-shore  it  was  shallow 
and  muddy.  In  the  shoal  water  the  interesting 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    14$ 

"water-weed"  (Anacharis  Canadensis)  was  grow- 
ing in  the  greatest  profusion,  and  as  we  rowed 
through  the  tangled  mass  the  startled  pickerel 
could  be  seen  darting  on  all  sides  of  us.  The 
plant  was  in  full  bloom.  Female  flowers  could  be 
found  in  abundance,  but  no  male  flowers,  though 
we  made  most  diligent  search  for  them.  Though 
one  of  the  commonest  plants,  this  shows  some  of 
the  most  striking  vital  phenomena.  It  is  hardly 
a  fanciful  statement  to  say  that  we  can  see  it  in 
the  very  act  of  living.  Place  a  single  fresh  leaflet 
under  a  microscope  which  magnifies  about  five 
hundred  diameters,  and  you  can  plainly  see  the 
fluids  in  the  cells  rotating  up  one  side  and  down 
the  other,  showing  that  the  very  foundation — or, 
rather,  essence — of  life  is  motion.  It  is  a  fresh 
illustration  of  Ritter's  celebrated  statement,  that 
"  life  is  simply  a  change  of  relation."  In  the  ex- 
pansion of  this  generalization  he  did  not  limit 
himself  to  what  we  call  living  things,  but,  with  a 
more  than  poetic  truth,  applied  it  to  the  action  and 
reaction  of  one  portion  of  the  globe  upon  another. 
The  male  flowers  of  this  plant  are  so  rare  that  it 
is  evident  its  increase  is  not  limited  to  the  usual 

mode  by  seeds.     Apparently,  wherever  its  joints 
G       k  13 


146  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

touch  the  earth  new  root  may  be  taken.  Years 
ago  it  was  introduced  into  Europe,  where  it  has 
become  a  serious  pest  by  its  rapid  growth  and  by  its 
tendency  to  choke  up  the  water-courses.  It  even 
impedes  navigation  on  the  European  canals.  Dur- 
ing the  middle  of  July  you  see,  as  I  have  said, 
abundance  of  the  female  flowers.  They  attract 
attention  by  their  long,  thread-like  tubes  and  ex- 
serted,  knob-like  stigmas.  But  the  male  flowers, — 
where  are  they  ?  Seldom  seen,  but,  when  found, 
are  usually  separated  from  the  plant  which  pro- 
duced them.  Chance  floats,  perhaps  one  out  of 
many,  past  a  female  flower  of  another  plant,  and 
so  by  the  accomplished  act  of  fertilization  the  life 
and  vigor  of  the  species  are  maintained.  We  like 
to  believe,  with  most  of  the  botanists,  that  a  cross- 
ing of  the  sexual  elements  of  different  individuals 
of  the  same  plant  species  is  the  condition  upon 
which  a  long-enduring  vigor  depends.  So,  doubt- 
less, it  is  in  most  instances.  But  how  are  we  to 
explain  the  amazing  reproductive  power  of  the 
plant  in  European  waters,  where  no  male  flower 
has  ever  been  found  ?  The  eel-grass  is  a  much 
more  conspicuous  example  of  this  separation  and 
floating  of  the  male  flowers.  Yet,  uncertain  as 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    \^j 

such  a  mode  of  fertilization  must  be,  I  was  amazed 
at  the  number  of  fecundated,  seed  containing  ova- 
ries which  I  found  among  Anacharis. 

The  chief  productions  of  the  region  appeared 
to  be  melons,  peaches,  and  "  garden  truck."  Prox- 
imity to  Baltimore  doubtless  made  such  interests 
very  lucrative  there.  The  busy  freighting-season 
for  these  productions  was  just  coming  on,  and  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  I  convinced  one  farmer 
that  I  could  not  be  induced  to  do  his  carrying  for 
him. 

The  morning  of  July  14  was  clear,  and  gave 
no  indication,  by  barometer  or  otherwise,  of  an 
impending  storm.  By  five  A.M.  we  were  well 
started, — that  is,  in  the  absence  of  the  wind  we 
went  out,  like  Barkis,  "  with  the  tide."  But  we 
were  no  sooner  in  the  bay  than  a  nice  breeze 
sprang  up.  It  bore  promise  on  its  wings,  for  it 
was  none  of  those  puffy  winds  which  we  had  felt 
so  often  before,  but  a  steady,  constantly  strength- 
ening one  that  intimated  its  full  intention  of  re- 
maining with  us  for  the  day.  It  increased  as  the 
sun  rose.  Before  ten  o'clock,  however,  dark 
clouds  were  in  the  west,  and  the  barometer  gave 
undoubted  signs  of  a  coming  storm.  As  far  as 


148  VACATION  CRUISING   IN 

we  could  see  to  the  south  the  vessels  were  "  hold- 
ing the  wind."  This  encouraged  us  to  think 
that  this  same  friendly  breeze  would  last  until  we 
reached  Still  Pond  Harbor  before  the  storm  came. 
Swan  Point  was  left  behind  us,  and  in  a  couple  of 
hours  more  we  passed  Worton's  Creek  ;  then  we 
rounded  the  point  and  stood  in  for  Still  Pond. 
We  had  the  usual  difficulty  in  getting  over  the 
bar,  and  working  through  the  narrow  inlet  to  the 
pond.  But  we  succeeded,  and  by  one  o'clock  we 
had  two  anchors  out  and  sails  all  snugly  stowed. 
Then  we  went  below, — "  Mose"  to  preparing  din- 
ner, and  we  to  preparing  for  an  "  afternoon  fish" 
after  the  storm  was  over.  So  far  as  the  ordinary 
dangers  of  navigation  were  concerned,  we  had 
passed  out  of  them  when  we  entered  our  harbor. 
It  was  astonishing  to  see  how  little  impression  the 
wind  made  on  the  boat  where  she  lay ;  but,  look- 
ing outside,  we  could  see  others  tossing  furiously 
on  the  waves.  The  rain  was  severe,  and  the  wind 
too,  though  the  latter  was  nothing  like  that  of 
two  days  before.  During  the  afternoon  we  had 
a  succession  of  thunder-storms.  The  play  of  the 
lightning  was  very  grand.  Both  zigzag  and 
sheet  lightning  illuminated  the  heavens.  As  we 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


149 


watched,  we  could  see  tall  spires  and  ruined  build- 
ings, even,  represented  in  the  fiery  shapes  on  the 
sky.  Afloat  or  ashore,  it  matters  not:  man  lives 
more  during  an  hour  of  storm  than  during  any 
other  equal  period.  His  own  utter  weakness  and 
the  unlimited  power  of  the  elements,  both,  force 
themselves  upon  his  mind.  There  is  no  escape 
from  either.  He  need  not  be  an  abject,  cringing 
coward  to  realize  both  to  the  fullest  extent.  On 
the  contrary,  he  may  be  a  brave  man,  and  one  full 
of  good  faith  and  of  good  deeds,  and  still  these 
feelings  will  rise  and  overwhelm  him.  A  thunder- 
storm is  a  rich  experience, — one  well  worth  living 
through. 

On  our  way  up  from  Magothy  we  met  the 
"John  McClintock  Yacht  Club,"  bound  down  the 
bay.  As  they  were  from  Philadelphia,  we  could 
not  refrain  from  saluting  them,  though  our  ves- 
sel was  very  diminutive  alongside  of  theirs.  The 
salute  was  returned  in  the  most  cordial  and  gen- 
tlemanly manner.  Wishing  each  other  a  successful 
voyage,  we  held  our  courses  and  were  soon  out 
of  sight.  These  yachting-parties,  where  congenial 
friends  hire  a  good  vessel  and  at  a  minimum  of 
expense  get  a  maximum  of  rational  recreation, 
13* 


150  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

are  becoming  much  more  frequent.  They  are 
also  creating  a  just  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
aquatic  sports.  There  was  a  time,  not  'many 
years  ago,  when  to  be  a  yachtsman  was  entirely 
synonymous  with  being  a  blackguard,  in  the  eyes 
of  many  well-thinking  persons ;  and,  to  tell  the 
truth,  this  imputation  was  too  often  deserved. 
He  who  wrote  "  Rob  Roy  on  the  Jordan"  did 
missionary  work,  both  when  he  distributed  tracts 
and  alms  among  the  poverty-stricken  souls,  and 
when  he  sailed  his  little  yacht, — no  less  in  the 
one  case  than  in  the  other.  He  preached  salva- 
tion to  soul  and  body  both. 

There  is  needed,  now,  a  book  describing  the 
models  of  small  craft  peculiar  to  our  American 
coast,  with  a  clear  statement  of  the  merits  and 
defects  of  each.  It  should  also  give  descriptions 
of  the  most  suitable  waters  for  sailing  in  at  each 
season,  along  with  some  statements  concerning 
the  historical  and  other  attractions  of  each  harbor 
likely  to  be  visited.  To  the  above  might  be  added 
a  very  interesting  chapter  on  the  most  important 
voyages  undertaken  in  small  vessels.  The  fact  is, 
that  in  this  age  of  huge  ships  size  has  come  to 
be  regarded  as  the  sole  measure  of  safety.  We 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS,     jijj 

forget,  however,  in  what  small  vessels  the  men 
of  earlier  days  made  the  most  notable  maritime 
discoveries.  Leaving  out  of  sight  the  probable 
discovery  of  this  continent  by  the  Northmen,  in 
open  boats,  long  anterior  to  the  days  of  Columbus, 
we  have  Irving's  statements  concerning  the  vessels 
of  the  great  admiral :  "  Three  small  vessels  were 
apparently  all  that  he  (Columbus)  had  requested 
Two  of  them  were  light  barks,  called  '  caravels,' 
not  superior  to  river  and  coasting  craft  of  more 
modern  days.  Representatives  of  this  class  of 
vessels  exist  in  old  prints  and  paintings.  They 
were  delineated  as  open,  and  without  deck  in  the 
centre,  but  built  up  high  at  the  prow  and  stern, 
with  forecastles  and  cabins  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  crew.  Peter  Martyr,  the  learned  con- 
temporary of  Columbus,  says  that  only  one  of 
the  three  vessels  was  decked.  The  smallness  of 
the  vessels  was  considered  an  advantage  by  Co- 
lumbus in  a  voyage  of  discovery,  enabling  him 
to  run  close  to  the  shores,  and  to  enter  shallow 
rivers  and  harbors.  In  his  third  voyage,  when 
coasting  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  he  complained  of  the 
size  of  his  ship,  being  nearly  a  hundred  tons 
burthen.  But  that  such  long  and  perilous  expe- 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

ditions  into  unknown  seas  should  be  undertaken 
in  vessels  without  decks,  and  that  they  should 
live  through  the  violent  tempests,  by  which  they 
were  frequently  assailed,  remain  among  the  sin- 
gular circumstances  of  these  daring  voyages." 

Of  Magellan's  fleet,  which  started  to  circum- 
navigate the  globe,  the  largest  vessel  was  the 
"  Trinidad,"  of  but  one  hundred  tons.  Two  were 
but  sixty;  and  it  was  the  "Victoria,"  one  of  the 
smallest,  which  brought  back  the  news  that  the 
great  deed  had  been  done.  Vasco  da  Gama's 
vessels  were  of  only  one  hundred  and  twenty 
tons  each.  Martin  Frobisher  crossed  the  Atlantic, 
and  entered  the  sub-Arctic  strait,  which  has  since 
borne  his  name,  with  two  vessels  which  were  of 
twenty-five  tons  each,  and  with  a  pinnace  of  ten 
tons.  Now,  that  a  steamer  of  less  than  three 
thousand  tons'  burden  has  almost  come  to  be 
regarded  as  too  small  safely 'to  cross  the  ocean,  it 
may  be  well  to  make  the  following  extract  from 
the  London  Times ,  of  May  n,  1819  : 

"  GREAT  EXPERIMENT. — A  new  steam-vessel  of  three  hundred 
tons  has  been  built  at  New  York  for  the  express  purpose  of  car- 
rying passengers  across  the  Atlantic.  She  is  to  come  to  Liverpool 
direct." 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.     jijj 

This  vessel,  the  "  Savannah,"  started  from  the 
city  of  the  same  name  on  May  22d  or  25th,  and 
came  to  anchor  off  Liverpool  on  June  2Oth.  Of 
this  time,  she  was  under  steam  eighteen  days. 

That  same  needed  book  should,  for  the  benefit 
of  amateurs,  also  give  some  history  of  the  nautical 
terms  most  in  use.  Their  study  would  serve  to 
relieve  the  monotony  of  many  an  otherwise  dull 
hour.  Many  of  the  words  now  so  glibly  used 
have  come  down  to  us  through  centuries  ante- 
dating England's  rule  over  the  waves.  Some 
of  them  were  in  common  use  from  Denmark 
through  Scandinavia  even  to  Iceland,  and  all, 
without  doubt,  had  a  real  meaning  when  coined, 
even  though  we  now  fail  to  recognize  their  origin. 
Take,  for  example,  the  word  "  starboard,"  which 
meant  originally  the  side  of  the  boat  on  which 
the  steersman  stood.  It  traces  its  origin  to  a  time 
so  remote  that,  instead  of  a  rudder,  the  boat  was 
steered  with  a  paddle,  or  an  oar,  as  much  smaller 
ones  are  to  this  day.  "  Keel,"  in  primitive  form, 
appears  in  the  old  Danish  and  Swedish,  and  prob- 
ably, from  the  former  of  those  languages,  was 
taken  into  the  English.  "  Kelson,"  or  "  keelson," 
is  merely  a  derivative  from  "  keel."  Our  modern 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

word  "  schooner"  is  supposed  to  have  originated 
in  1713  at  Gloucester,  in  Massachusetts,  where 
the  first  vessel  of  this  class  was  launched.  It  is 
true  that  the  name  was  then  given  because  of  a 
remark  made  by  one  of  the  witnesses  to  the 
launch.  "  See  how  she  scoons !"  said  he  as  the 
vessel  slid  into  the  water.  Hence  our  word 
"schooner,"  or,  as  first  spelled,  "scooner."  But 
there  is  an  old  verb, — "  scoon,"  which  means  "  to 
glide  swiftly,"  and  it  was  this  which  the  uninten- 
tional christener  of  the  schooner  used. 

Angling  and  shooting  each  have  a  literature, — 
one  containing  volumes  which  are  classic  in  our 
language.  Why  should  yachting  not  have? 
Under  title  of  "Yachting  in  Blue  Waters," 
there  is  an  article  in  Harper's  Monthly  Magazine 
for  the  year  1877,  by  Mr.  Warren.  I  cannot  for- 
bear quoting  from  it : 

"Yachting  is  undeniably  looked  upon  by  the 
mass  of  the  community  in  the  light  not  only  of  a 
slothful  and  luxurious  pastime,  but  as  an  actual 
waste  of  time ;  yet  it  is  none  the  less  true,  that 
the  larger  number  of  those  who  cruise  upon 
blue  water  are  men  of  positive  character,  who, 
becoming  impatient  of  the  humdrum  conven- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


155 


tionalities  of  society,  prefer  to  assert  their  man- 
hood in  contention  with  the  elements.  And 
these  men,  who  may  have  been  skirmishers  on  the 
outposts  of  science,  are  not  infrequently,  by  the 
very  nature  of  their  new  pursuit,  drawn  within  its 
charmed  circle,  and  by  their  observations  and 
experiments  become  important  contributors  to  it." 

If  this  form  of  recreation  has  anything  in  it 
better  than  the  old-time  regattas,  and  their  too 
often  disgraceful  associations  (which  I  think  it 
has),  then  by  all  means  let  us  have  it  out. 

Sailors'  expressions  are  often  full  of  quaint 
humor.  During  one  of  our  prolonged  drifts,  when 
there  was  no  wind,  "  Mose"  took  our  long  oars 
and  went  vigorously  to  work.  "  Cap'n  Will," 
said  he,  addressing  Mr.  B.,  "  dis  is  what  we  sailor 
men  calls  a  woodin  wind ;  but  when  we  gets  into 
de  yawl-boat  and  goes  ahead  with  a  line  and  tows 
de  ship,  dat  is  a  buggy-ride.  You  think  makin'  a 
woodin  wind  is  hard  work,  but  it  ain't  nuthin'  to  a 
buggy-ride." 

Darkness  came  on  at  Still  Pond  before  the  net 
was  placed  as  we  desired.  Though  the  next 
morning,  one  twenty-inch  pickerel  showed  that 
during  the  month  between  our  first  and  second 


156  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

visits  to  the  place  the  supply  had  not  been  ex- 
hausted. 

There  are  fated  spots  sailors  think.  I  never, 
save  once,  have  gone  from  Still  Pond  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Elk  that  I  did  not  have  to  drift,  or,  at  most, 
to  sail  with  barely  enough  of  wind  to  give  us 
"  steerage-way."  My  last  trip  up,  over  the  same 
water,  was  no  exception.  Hour  after  hour  the 
surface  of  the  bay  was  undisturbed  by  any 
breeze  whatever.  Our  only  comfort  lay  in  the 
fact,  well  known  to  sailors,  that  some  boats  drift 
better  than  others,  and  we  had  the  satisfaction  of 
being  among  the  best  in  that  kind  of  navigation. 
Later  at  night,  on  July  I5th,  we  anchored  in  Elk 
River, — still  in  sight  of  our  starting-point  in  the 
morning.  The  rising  sun  of  the  following  day 
brought  with  it  a  moderate  breeze,  before  which 
we  made  our  way  through  Back  Creek  to 
Chesapeake  City. 

In  spite  of  its  storms  and  its  calms,  its  over- 
dreaded  mosquitoes,  and  its  alleged  malaria,  I 
have  come  to  think  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay  as  my 
sanitarium.  I  know  that  I  come  back  from  my 
trips  there  stronger  than  when  I  start  on  them. 
It  is  a  soul-expanding  process  simply  to  gaze  out 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

on  the  water,  to  study  the  features  of  the  head- 
lands, and  to  conjecture  in  what  time  and  by  what 
agencies  they  were  formed. 

Who  does  not  dread  the  Chesapeake  and  Dela- 
ware Canal,  if  he  has  any  regard  for  his  own 
vessel?  Mine  fared  probably  as  well  as  small 
craft  usually  do  in  making  the  transit  from  bay  to 
bay.  The  helmsman  of  a  canal-boat  managed  to 
jam  my  yacht  against  the  rocks  of  the  tow-path, 
much  to  the  injury  of  her  planking.  However, 
his  associates  remarked,  by  way  of  apology,  "  the 
fellow  is  only  half-witted."  I  did  not  see  that  the 
explanation  made  the  rent  in  the  plank  smaller. 

It  was  a  relief  to  be  "  locked  out"  into  Delaware 
Bay,  though  our  welcome  there  was  a  stormy  one. 
Hardly  were  our  sails  up  before  the  usual  after- 
noon clouds  warned  us  to  prepare.  This  time, 
however,  the  barometer  did  not  indicate  anything 
heavy  as  likely  to  reach  us.  The  yacht  was  kept 
on  her  course  until  we  passed  the  black  buoy, 
midway  between  Delaware  City  and  New  Castle. 
Rounding  this,  we  dropped  anchor  in  two  and  a 
half  fathoms  of  water.  By  the  time  the  sails  were 
down  and  stowed,  the  storm  had  reached  us.  It 
was  more  severe  by  far  than  I  anticipated  from  the 
14 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

slight  warning  given  by  my  barometer.  This  was 
the  only  ti'me  that  I  was  ever  misled  by  its  indica- 
tions in  the  slightest  degree ;  and  it  should  be  said 
that  it  did  fall  some,  though  not  in  proportion,  I 
thought,  to  the  severe  "blow"  which  followed.  The 
wind  came  from  the  west,  and  the  tide  was  running 
out  very  rapidly ;  so  we  lay  in  a  direction  diagonal 
to  the  two  forces,  and,  as  a  consequence,  were  con- 
siderably tossed  by  the  waves.  Our  big  anchor, 
which  had  always  held  well  hitherto,  was  dragged, 
and  to  prevent  being  carried  out  into  the  channel 
we  were  obliged  to  let  the  other  one  go  also. 
Together,  the  anchors  held  us  firmly,  and  we  went 
below  to  dine  and  ride  out  the  storm. 

My  somewhat  tempestuous  trip  up  the  Chesa- 
peake had  made  certain  points  more  clear  to  me. 
As  between  the  English  yacht  and  the  American, 
we  may  say  that  the  former  is  an  infinitely  better 
sea-boat.  The  English  vessel  is  characterized  by 
greater  draught  of  water  and  by  correspondingly 
less  beam.  It  carries  its  ballast  as  low  down  as 
possible,  and  much  of  it  in  the  form  of  a  keel  of 
lead  or  iron  outside.  The  American  vessel,  on  the 
contrary,  is  characterized  by  less  depth  and  greater 
beam,  with  but  little  ballast  as  compared  with  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

deeper  boat.  It  is  simply  astonishing  with  what 
impunity  the  Englishman  goes  to  sea  in  his  very 
small  craft.  On  the  mere  score  of  safety  in  rough 
water,  sudden  squalls,  and  in  "  clawing  off"  a  lee- 
shore,  beyond  doubt,  'the  English  model  is  the 
safer  one.  The  Englishman  sails  where  he  will 
in  safety ;  the  American  goes  where  he  can,  often 
at  considerable  risk.  It  is  to  be  remembered, 
however,  that  our  shoal  vessels  come,  to  a  certain 
extent,  from  the  character  of  the  waters  in  which 
we  sail.  Many  of  the  most  desirable  places,  to 
me  at  least,  could  only  be  reached  in  a  vessel  draw- 
ing less  than  four  feet  of  water. 

But,  then,  have  we  not  gone  from  one  extreme 
to  another?  Is  there  no  compromise  possible 
between  English  depth  and  narrowness,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  American  shallowness  and  breadth, 
on  the  other?  Whatever  else  may  be  justified  in 
the  model,  the  prodigious  spars  and  sails  under 
which  most  of  our  yachts  stagger  are  absolutely 
dangerous,  and  should  be  discountenanced  by  all 
yachtsmen  who  would  do  more  than  limit  them- 
selves to  an  occasional  regatta.  The  question  of 
"rig"  appears  until  very  recently  to  have  been 
limited,  with  us,  to  one  of  two  kinds  for  small 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

boats, — i.e.,  the  sloop  and  the  cat-boat.  For  any- 
thing over  twenty  feet  keel  the  latter  of  these  may 
be  regarded  as  about  the  worst  possible  form, 
sacrificing  every  other  good  quality  to  simple 
convenience.  The  sloop  will  still  have  many 
stanch  friends,  in  spite  of  the  signal  victories 
which  the  cutter  has  so  recently  won  among  us. 
Were  I  yachting  in  waters  where  great  draught 
was  no  objection,  I  should,  beyond  all  question, 
prefer  the  cutter  rig;  but  in  either  Delaware  or 
Chesapeake  Bay  I  think  the  yawl  is  to  be  the 
small  boat  of  the  future.  So  far  as  I  know,  there 
is  but  one  yawl  on  the  Delaware  waters.  Of 
course,  he  who  introduces  such  a  rig  must  expect 
to  bear  the  cheap  wisdom  of  "  the  rule  o'  thumb" 
men.  The  sufficient  answer  to  all  their  objections 
is,  that  in  England,  in  Boston,  in  New  York,  and 
in  San  Francisco,  the  yawl  rig  has  been  tried,  and 
its  merits  too  fully  tested  and  too  widely  ap- 
proved to  leave  any  doubt  as  to  its  safety,  con- 
venience, and  ease  of  working.  We  might  define 
the  yawl  to  be  a  modified  schooner,  whose  fore- 
boom  came  aft  as  far  as  the  rudder-stock,  and  that 
aft  of  the  rudder-stock  was  inserted  a  mast  for  a 
sail  whose  area  should  not  be  greater  than  that  of 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS,    ifa 

the  jib.  The  special  advantages  of  this  rig  are, 
first,  safety  in  case  of  sudden  squalls,  for  by  letting 
the  mainsail  (i.e.,  foresail)  come  down  on  the  run, 
the  mizzen  and  jib  still  set,  leave  you  under  storm 
canvas  at  once,  with  which  the  boat  can  be  readily 
managed ;  or,  second,  if  either  of  the  other  sails 
be  damaged,  the  boat  under  foresail  alone  does 
well ;  or,  third,  if  the  rudder  be  unshipped  at  sea, 
the  boat  can  be  worked  into  harbor  by  slacking, 
or  hauling  the  mizzen  aft.  It  should  be  said  that 
this  has  been  done  more  than  once. 

The  illustration  (p.  162),  from  Forest  and  Stream, 
will  show  at  a  glance  the  whole  plan  and  mode 
of  working.  A  yawl  of  thirty  feet  deck  need  not 
draw  over  three  feet  and  a  half  of  water,  and  still 
be  a  thoroughly  safe  boat.  Add  to  this,  the  fact 
that  in  most  cases,  if  absolutely  required,  one  man 
could  manage  her.  If  the  yawl  had  no  other  ad- 
vantage than  the  ease  with  which  her  sails  can  be 
reefed,  that  alone  would  compensate  for  the  very 
small  loss  of  speed  which  is  alleged  to  exist  when 
compared  with  the  sloop. 

The  great  mission  of  single-hand  yachting  is  to 
take  a  legitimate,  healthful  recreation  out  of  the 

hands  of  hirelings  and  "  professionals,"  and  make 
I  14* 


1 62 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


it  tributary  to  the  growth  of  character  and  strength 
in  the  yacht-owner.  It  is  interesting  to  read  in 
this  connection  the  following  extract,  taken  at 


CRUISING  RIG  OF  "  CANNET"   YAWL. 

second  hand  from  what  Dr.  Waldstein,  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  had  to  say  on  a  closely- 
related  subject  before  his  institution  : 

"  The  same  causes  which  led  to  the  growth  of  individualism 
affected  the  great  change  in  the  spirit  of  athletic  institutions. 
While  before  they  were  a  means  to  a  great  political  and  social 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


end,  they  now  become  ends  in  themselves  to  which  all  other  con- 
siderations become  subservient.  While  before  athletic  exercise 
was  a  part  of  the  daily  occupation  of  the  Greek  youth,  which  was 
meant  to  contribute  its  share  to  the  great  end  of  making  him  a 
sound  and  normal  being,  harmoniously  developed  both  in  mind 
and  body,  and  thus  a  serviceable  citizen  to  his  state,  it  now,  step 
by  step,  becomes  itself  the  great  aim  to  which  time,  life,  and  aspi- 
rations of  the  youth  are  devoted,  and  to  which  they  are  made 
subservient.  It  is  the  step  recurring  in  the  history  of  athletic 
games  in  all  times,  —  the  step  from  the  gentleman  athlete  to  the 
professional  athlete.  In  art  we  see  the  signs  of  the  loss  of  propor- 
tion in  such  works,  which  increase  in  the  next  period.  We  hear 
from  ancient  authorities  how  pugilists  and  pancrea'tists  were  fat- 
tened up  and  made  bulky,  how  muscular  development  was  exag- 
gerated even  to  ugliness.  In  the  mythical  figure  most  imme- 
diately influenced  by  athletic  art,  in  Hercules,  we  see  this  in 
later  instances,  where  the  muscular  development  is  abnormal  and 
repulsive.  The  germs  of  the  rapid  decline  of  this  great  institu- 
tion are  to  be  found  in  the  fungus  growth  of  its  own  importance, 
growing  till  it  obscured  the  great  aim  which  gave  it  life  and  char- 
acterized its  highest  development.  It  leads  to  degeneration,  or, 
as  the  pathologist  would  more  accurately  term  it,  to  hypertrophy. 
Let  me  only  bring  before  you  one  interesting  instance  to  illustrate 
this  step  towards  professional  athleticism.  This  coin  of  Amyntas 
III.,  of  Macedon,  who  reigned  from  389  to  369  B.C.,  representing 
a  horse  with  its  rider,  is  typical  in  one  respect  of  all  similar  repre- 
sentations before  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  namely, 
in  respect  of  the  relation  of  rider  and  horse,  and  of  the  corre- 
sponding importance  of  both  in  the  mind  of  the  people  of  that 
time.  Like  all  representations  of  riders  down  to  the  middle  of 


1 64  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  fourth  century,  the  rider  is  here  large  in  comparison  with  the 
horse.  If  now  we  turn  to  this  coin  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  there 
is  a  striking  difference  in  this  respect,  the  horse  being  dispropor- 
tionately large,  while  the  rider  has  dwindled  down  to  an  under- 
grown  jockey.  The  whole  matter  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  this 
coin  of  Philip  represents  his  racer  whom  he  sent  to  Olympia,  and 
who  there  came  out  the  winner.  Now,  in  the  previous  periods 
it  was  for  the  rider's  sake  that  horse-racing  existed ;  it  was  to  show 
and  encourage  his  skill  in  horsemanship,  and  he  got  the  glory ; 
there  existed  no  jockeys.  In  the  time  of  Philip  the  horse  became 
the  great  centre  of  interest,  and  the  gentleman  rider  and  warrior 
of  the  Parthenon  frieze  is  no  longer  to  be  found  at  Olympia.  In 
the  course  of  this  natural  or  unnatural  selection  the  horse,  too,  has 
altered  its  form,  merely  to  excel  in  fleetness.  It  is  curious  to 
consider  how  similar  the  action  of  these  '  laws'  has  been  in 
ancient  and  in  modern  times.  Thus,  not  only  with  the  human 
form,  but  even  with  animals,  the  course  taken  by  the  athletic 
games  in  the  later  periods  tended  to  destroy  the  ideal  of  form 
established,  during  the  great  age  of  Greek  culture,  by  art  through 
the  earlier  influence  of  the  same  institution.  .  .  . 

"  The  history  of  the  Greek  boxing-gloves,  the  t/j-avre?,  typifies 
and  illustrates  the  three  chief  phases  in  the  history  of  the  palaestra, 
from  its  height  to  its  decline.  The  earliest  form  were  the  jueftgot, 
which  were  to  soften  the  blow  to  the  striker  and  the  one  struck, 
and  were  thus  subservient  to  the  exercise.  The  second  form  was 
the  Ifiuc  ogvc,  a  leather  thong  wound  round  the  hand,  protecting 
the  hand  of  the  striker,  but  increasing  the  severity  of  the  blow. 
This  belongs  to  the  period  when  professional  athleticism  was  be- 
ginning to  be  introduced.  The  third  form,  marking  the  period 
of  decline,  the  Grseco-Roman  and  Roman  age,  was  the  brutal 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    ^5 

csestus,  garnished  with  leaden  balls,  which  produced  disfiguring 
blows,  sometimes  leading  to  death." 

The  application  of  the  above  extract  is  neither 
"far-fetched"  nor  difficult  to  see.  We  desire  a 
generation  of  men  and  citizens  with  the  physical 
proportions  and  mental  qualities  of  the  Greek  in 
the  days  of  Amyntas,  instead  of  the  jockey  who 
dwarfed  the  master  to  less  than  his  own  size,  or 
instead  of  the  beast  who  wore  the  caestus  for  the 
pleasure  of  a  patron  of  worse  morals  even  than 
himself. 


!66  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


CHAPTER    IV. 

CRUISING   ON   THE   DELAWARE   RIVER  AND   BAY. 

THIS  chapter  is  intended  not  as  a  mere  "log" 
of  our  trips  up  and  down  the  Delaware,  but 
rather  as  a  general  statement  of  such  facts  of 
interest  as  came  under  the  author's  observation. 
It  will  also  give  some  points  which  may  be  of 
service  to  other  amateurs  who  undertake  to  man- 
age their  own  boats  when  sailing  in  the  same 
waters.  It  is,  it  is  true,  only  amateur  advice,  but 
then,  for  that  reason,  is  likely  to  touch  the  very 
points  upon  which  the  holiday  cruiser  wants  in- 
formation most,  and  which  a  veteran  sailor  would 
be  most  likely  to  pass  over  in  silence. 

Comparing  the  Chesapeake  with  the  Delaware, 
each  bay  has  peculiarities  of  its  own.  If  the 
former  has  heavier  squalls,  the  latter  has  swifter 
tides,  which  prevent  your  going  against  the  current, 
unless  the  wind  is  fair.  But  the  Delaware  has  its 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS, 

full  share  of  squalls,  for,  as  already  stated,  the  first 
hour  we  sailed  in  it,  after  coming  through  the 
canal,  we  encountered  a  heavy  "  blow." 

The  Delaware,  though  all  harbor,  so  far  as 
good-sized  vessels  are  concerned,  has  but  few 
of  the  cosey  nooks  which  characterize  the  Chesa- 
peake, and  into  which  small  vessels  may  creep 
for  a  night  of  quietness  and  safety.  True,  there 
are  many  small  rivers  and  numberless  small 
sloughs  opening  into  the  Delaware,  where  we 
could  go  and  be  out  of  harm's  way,  but  they 
did  not  attract  me  as  did  the  little  resting-places 
of  the  other  bay. 

On  July  2  ist  we  ran  up  the  river  to  Camden, 
and  by  two  P.M.  were  at  anchor  at  Cooper's  Point, 
from  which  we  had  started  more  than  a  month 
before.  Our  good  little  boat  was  cordially  wel- 
comed back  among  the  others  of  the  same  class. 

No  one,  of  course,  cares  to  contemplate  what 
may  happen  after  he  has  seriously  determined 
upon  a  trip.  It  was  a  satisfaction  to  be  back 
again  at  our  starting-point.  It  was,  furthermore, 
a  greater  satisfaction  to  think  that  the  trip  was 
made  under  circumstances  which  certain  wise 
heads  had  regarded  as  unfavorable.  I  only  refer 


!68  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

to  this  to  point  the  moral  that  risk  is  determined 
as  much  by  the  individual  as  by  the  circum- 
stances. A  better  sailor  could  have  gone  to  the 
James  and  back  in  a  much  smaller  boat ;  a  worse 
one  (if  he  could  be  found)  might  have  been  lost 
in  a  much  larger  vessel,  in  no  worse  weather  than 
we  encountered.  Next  to  having  a  tight,  strong, 
well-ballasted  vessel,  and  one  obedient  to  her 
helm,  the  yachtsman  must  be  temperate  and 
prudent  if  he  expects  the  air  and  exercise  to  do 
their  best  for  him. 

I  clip  the  following  from  the  Philadelphia  Ledger 
for  July  24th : 

[Special  Dispatch  to  the  Public  Ledger^ 
A  VIOLENT  STORM   AT  ASBURY  PARK. 

ASBURY  PARK,  N.  J.,  July  23. — A  violent  storm  burst  over 
this  place  at  half-past  three  o'clock  this  P.M.,  doing  damage  to 
the  extent  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.  The  rain  fell  so  heavily 
that  the  air  seemed  filled  with  spray,  and  it  was  almost  impossible 
to  distinguish  objects  twenty  feet  ahead.  Tin  roofs  were  carried 
away  like  so  much  paper,  and  shingles  and  trees  were  blown  in 
every  direction.  The  Howard,  Gilsey,  Barrett,  and  Sunset 
Hotels  were  entirely  unroofed,  and  the  Madison  and  Princeton 
Hotels  were  badly  damaged.  Six  tents  and  some  outbuildings 
at  Ocean  Grove  were  levelled  to  the  ground.  Boats  were  lifted 
from  the  water  of  Sunset  Lake  and  blown  some  distance  upon 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


169 


the  land.  Seven  teams  were  upset  near  the  lake.  Lamp-posts 
were  wrecked  everywhere,  and  chimneys  were  blown  down  on 
many  private  cottages.  It  was  bathing-hour,  and  hundreds  of 
people  were  in  the  surf.  There  were  several  narrow  escapes 
from  drowning,  but  only  one  life  was  lost, — that  of  a  colored 
waiter  at  one  of  the  hotels,  who  was  blown  out  to  sea.  A  boat 
containing  two  boys  was  capsized,  but  they  were  rescued.  The 
telegraph  wires  were  blown  down  between  this  place  and  Ocean 
Grove.  Windows  were  broken  everywhere,  and  the  streets  are 
littered  with  broken  limbs  of  trees.  The  storm  lasted  about  half 
an  hour. 

My  object  in  making  this  extract  is  because 
of  its  association  with  certain  somewhat  unusual 
phenomena, — that  is,  unusual  from  the  popular 
way  of  looking  at  them.  For  several  days  past 
my  aneroid  barometer  on  the  yacht  had  been 
unusually  high.  On  the  morning  of  the  23d  it 
had  gone  down  to  30  inches ;  by  noon  it  stood 
at  29.95.  At  three  P.M.  it  began  to  rise  slightly, 
and  in  two  hours  there  was  a  calm.  During  the 
height  of  "  the  blow"  at  Asbury  Park  the  yacht 
was  anchored  a  few  miles  above  Chester,  waiting 
for  the  wind  to  subside. 

We  had  left  Camden  at  ten  A.M.  of  that  day 
with  a  strong,  but  somewhat  puffy,  wind  from  the 
northward,  and  hence  astern  of  us.  In  three- 
H  15 


VACATION  CRUISING   IN 

quarters  of  an  hour  it  had  gone  around  enough 
to  have  become  a  head-wind,  and  as  such  it  con- 
tinued the  rest  of  the  day, — so  long,  at  least,  as 
it  blew  at  all. 

West  Chester  (Pennsylvania)  is  situated,  say 
fifteen  miles  in  an  air-line  from  Chester,  and  my 
friend,  Dr.  George  Martin,  residing  in  the  former 
place,  has  kindly  furnished  me  the  mean  standing 
of  his  barometer  (after  it  was  reduced  to  the  sea- 
level)  for  several  days  before  the  storm.  Thus,  for 

July  ryth  it  was  29.943  inches. 

"  i8th  "  "  30.108  " 

"  I9th  "  "  30.133  " 

"  2oth  "  "  30.178  " 

"  2ist  "  "  30.198  " 

"  22d  "  "  30.062  " 

"  23d  "  "  29.929  " 

These  figures  bring  out  very  forcibly  a  fact  well 
known  to  scientific  men,  but  not  sufficiently  ap- 
preciated by  many  who  have  barometers  in  their 
houses,  or  on  their  yachts, — that  a  marked  sudden 
rise,  as  well  as  a  fall,  may  be  the  precursor  of  a 
storm.  In  other  words,  to  speak  more  generally, 
it  indicates  an  atmospheric  change,  which  is 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.     iyi 

usually  followed  by  more  or  less  of  a  storm  about 
the  time  that  the  index  or  mercury  has  fairly  com- 
menced to  fall  to  a  lower  figure.  This,  too,  is  true 
even  if  a  figure  not  lower  than  the  mean  standard 
of  the  place  is  reached. 

It  may  be  noted  that  the  storm,  the  account  of 
which  I  have  taken  from  the  Ledger,  was  not 
associated  with  a  great  fall  at  Philadelphia,  Ches- 
ter, or  West  Chester.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  the  readings  of  the  instrument  at  Asbury 
Park  the  day  of,  and  a  few  days  previous  to,  the 
storm  there. 

There  is  apt  to  be  somewhat  of  excitement 
connected  with  yachting  on  the  edge  of  a  storm. 
One  may  fail  to  recognize  how  heavy  the  wind  is, 
so  long  as  his  boat  behaves  well.  I  was  under  no 
apprehension,  but,  remembering  now  how  fiercely 
the  wind  whistled  through  the  rigging,  I  am  per- 
suaded that  most  people  would  have  regarded  it 
as  quite  strong.  At  all  events,  it  blew  hard 
enough  to  make  us  drag  our  best  anchor  more 
than  half-way  across  the  river ;  yet,  there  was 
no  marked  fall  in  the  barometer  where  we  were.* 

*So  thoroughly  am  I  impressed  with  the  importance  of  this 
subject  that  I  make  the  following  clear  extract  from  "  The 


172 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


Up  to  this  point  not  a  single  word  has  been 
said  about  the  mistakes  made  in  sailing.  Possibly 
the  reader  might  be  deluded  into  the  idea  that  the 
writer  is  an  accomplished  practical  sailor.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  he  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  My 
object  in  buying  and  in  owning  a  boat  was  to  be- 
come a  more  practical  waterman.  Day  after  day 
I  blundered  on,  making  mistakes  both  numerous 
and  humiliating ;  but  there  is  virtue  in  persistency. 
These  blunders  became  less  frequent  as  the  season 
went  on.  Occasionally  a  mud-bank  would  get  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  yacht,  and  we  would  stick 
fast  there  until  liberated  by  the  friendly  tide. 
This  occurred  at  Chester  when  two  friends  were 

Sailor's  Handy  Book  and  Yachtman's  Manual,"  by  E.  F. 
Qualtrough,  Master,  U.S.N. :  "  A  sudden  rise  of  the  barome- 
ter is  very  nearly  as  bad  a  sign  as  a  sudden  fall,  because  it  shows 
that  atmospherical  equilibrium  is  unsteady.  In  an  ordinary  gale 
the  wind  often  blows  hardest  when  the  barometer  is  just  begin- 
ning to  rise,  directly  after  having  been  very  low." 

"  Besides  these  rules  for  the  instrument,  there  is  a  rule  about 
the  way  in  which  the  wind  changes  which  is  very  important.  It 
is  well  known  to  every  sailor,  and  is  contained  in  the  following 
couplet : 

"  '  When  the  wind  shifts  against  the  sun, 
Trust  it  not,  for  back  it  will  run.'  " 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


173 


along,  who  charitably  held  their  peace,  even 
though  they  must  have  thought  hard  things  of 
the  awkwardness  which  deprived  them  of  several 
hours  of  fine  sailing.  To  be  sure,1  these  were 
tribulations ;  but  I  count  the  ability  to  manage 
my  own  yacht  cheaply  earned,  even  through  such 
blunders.  There  is  no  position  more  pitiable  than 
that  of  the  boat-owner  who  must  become  the 
servant  of  a  sailing-master.  Therefore,  command 
your  own  boat,  and  inform  the  professional  water- 
man, who  applies,  that  what  you  want  is  not  a  cap- 
tain, but  a  cook.  It  might  fairly  be  assumed  that 
any  educated  man  can  soon  learn  as  much  as  one 
of  less  education,  and  that  to  sail  a  yacht  it  is  not 
absolutely  requisite  to  forget  all  else  besides.  The 
one  great  charm  in  single-handed  yachting  is  that 
whatever  you  want-  done,  you  must  do  for  yourself, 
even  if  you  have  first  to  learn  how. 

After  six  or  seven  weeks  of  sailing  I  found  that 
I  had  been  so  completely  fascinated  by  my  vaca- 
tion freedom  as  to  have  neglected  to  keep  the  run 
of  events.  There  had  been  several  murders  and 
defalcations,  and  the  Pennsylvania  Republican 
Convention  had  been  held  since  I  had  read  a 

newspaper.     I   knew  nothing  whatever   of  these 

15* 


VACATION  CRUISING   IN 

affairs  ;  in  which  I  was  probably  just  like  the  great 
mass  of  mankind.  So  I  came  to  understand  how 
the  world  and  its  inhabitants  can  continue  to  exist, 
the  one  as  serene  in  its  motion,  and  the  other  as 
happy  and  as  pure  in  their  morals,  even  if  the 
flood-gates  of  human  iniquity  are  not  opened  for 
them  daily  by  the  early  newsboy. 

The  ravages  of  the  cholera  in  Egypt  first  came 
to  my  knowledge  on  the  26th  of  July.  Anchored 
above  Chester,  we  could  see  the  quarantine  "  Vis- 
itor" come  down  the  river,  and  could  watch  the 
health-officer  board  the  in-coming  vessels.  That 
boat  is  the  thin  wall  which  cuts  Philadelphia  off 
from  the  contagion  of  tropical  and  unclean  re- 
gions. To  protect  the  million  of  people  lying 
back  of  it,  that  "  Visitor"  should  be  armed  with 
authority  as  solid  as  adamant.  Brooklyn's  great 
preacher  once  wisely  said,  "  Cholera  is  God's 
opinion  of  the  filth  in  your  streets."  Truly  a 
brave  statement,  but  only  half  of  the  truth ;  good 
and  saving  so  far  as  it  went,  but  needing  the  sup- 
plementary idea,  that  if  the  quarantine  keeps  the 
germs  of  disease  out,  the  Divine  opinion  may  not 
be  openly  expressed  in  terms  of  mortality. 

Egypt's  agony  awakens  fear  in  the  cities  of  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE   BAYS. 


175 


New  World,  just  as  the  waves  starting  on  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  ultimately  leave  their 
weakened  impress  on  the  sands  of  our  coast. 
These  periodical  pests,  bad  as  they  are,  do  have  a 
mission.  The  loss  of  a  hundred  lives  may  awaken 
a  wholesome  fear  of  the  causes  of  disease,  and 
thus  lead  to  such  care  as  will  shear  pestilence  of 
its  dreadful  power. 

Here  is  an  extract  from  an  official  letter  written 
by  a  distinguished  physician.  It  shows  that  even 
in  so  great  a  city  as  New  York,  cholera  can  be 
controlled : 

On  Wednesday,  when  the  epidemic  was  at  its  height,  the  1st 
of  August,  1866,  I  gave  my  pledge  to  the  Board  of  Commission- 
ers and  to  Mr.  Schultz,  president  of  the  Board  of  Health,  in 
your  presence,  that  I  would  drive  the  cholera  from  the  work- 
house in  from  three  to  five  days.  I  said  this  in  no  spirit  of  boast- 
ing, but  in  the  simple  reliance  on  the  well-known  and  estab- 
lished laws  of  hygiene.  The  commissioners  executed  literally 
and  promptly  every  order  which  was  given  by  the  committee. 

The  epidemic  began  to  decline  from  the  day  they  were  fully 
carried  out,  and  on  Monday  last  the  pledge  was  redeemed.* 

As  nations  become  bound  together  more  closely 

*  Flint's  "  Practice  of  Medicine,"  second  edition,  page  476, 
foot-note. 


176  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

in  their  commercial  relations,  so  also  do  the  dan- 
gers of  intercourse  increase. 

The  quarantine  which  now  exists  at  Tinicum, 
about  thirteen  miles  below  Philadelphia,  is  the 
outgrowth  of  the  act  of  April,  1700,  which  was 
passed  by  the  Colonial  Assembly,  William  Penn 
being  Proprietary  Governor.  Quarantine  is  but 
one  form  of  restraint  which  individual  interests 
and  inclinations  must  endure  for  the  public  good. 
National  or  State  and  City  health  boards  would  act, 
if  authority  as  full  were  given  them,  with  no  less 
beneficent  results;  but  their  existence  is  perpet- 
ually threatened  by  the  power  which  should  be 
their  support.  Ignorance,  or  worse  than  ignorance, 
is  constantly  appealed  to,  to  thwart  their  measures 
and  to  limit  their  usefulness.  We  tolerate  the 
quarantine  because  the  disasters  which  it  helps  to 
avert  are  so  sweeping  in  their  character,  and  force 
themselves  upon  us  in  so  conspicuous  a  manner, 
that  no  expediency  or  mere  political  necessity  dare 
interfere  with  its  operation.  Yellow  fever,  cholera, 
and  other  scourges  of  like  character  carry  an  inex- 
orable logic  in  their  death-rates.  But  the  diseases 
with  which  local  or  general  health  boards  (inland) 
have  to  do, — scarlet  fever,  diphtheria,  and  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


177 


like, — may  in  a  decade  number  more  victims  than 
either  or  both  of  the  other  plagues,  which  we  allow 
the  quarantine  to  stop  outside  of  our  doors. 

It  is  just  in  the  domain  of  sanitary  science  that 
modern  medicine,  whose  essential  character  is  pre- 
ventive rather  than  curative,  has  wrought  its  most 
signal  triumphs.  To  prevent  an  epidemic,  is  of 
vastly  greater  importance  than  to  arrest  it,  after  its 
work  of  decimation  has  been  largely  accomplished. 
To  fully  understand  the  problem  which  preventive 
medicine,  through'  health  boards,  proposes  to  itself, 
it  would  be  well  to  compare  the  ravages  of  a  dis- 
ease like  smallpox  two  centuries  ago  with  the 
relative  immunity  we  now  possess.  Before  the 
time  of  Jenner,  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  lost 
from  this  loathsome  plague,  each  year,  out  of 
their  population,  forty-five  thousand  souls.  When 
that  sublimely  simple  prayer  for  those  in  the  perils 
of  maternity  was  placed  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
service,  about  one  sufferer  in  fifty  perished  in 
performance  of  a  natural  function.  Probably  the 
mortality  to-day  would  not  exceed  one  in  three 
hundred.  True,  improved  treatment  has  had  a 
full  share  in  this  shortened  roll  of  doom  but 
when  we  consider  what  hygiene  has  done  to- 


i;8  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

wards  the  same  end  we  can  see  how  great  is  its 
credit. 

That  the  quarantine  precautions  are  no  mere 
sham,  or  useless  parade  of  zeal,  is  fairly  to  be  con- 
cluded when  we  remember  that  in  1762  an  infected 
vessel  from  the  West  Indies  brought  the  yellow 
fever  to  Philadelphia,  and  that  out  of  the  then 
small  population — less  than  forty  thousand — there 
were  a  thousand  lives  lost. 

In  the  perfected  republic  towards  which  we  are 
growing,  neither  the  ward  politician  nor  his  master, 
will  dare  to  lay  his  hands  upon  the  measures  which 
belong  to  the  public  health,  any  more  than  he 
would  dare  to  touch  individual  religious  opinion. 
There  will  be  no  party  or  clique  allegiance  stronger 
than  the  allegiance  a  man  owes  to  the  health  of 
his  family  and  of  his  neighbor,  and  the  success  of 
the  one  will  come  to  be  largely  measured  by  what 
it  does  for  the  other.  The  present  drum-majors 
of  election  day  will  be  recognized  as  those  who 
make  the  display,  but  who  originate  no  good  or 
useful  measure  simply  because  it  is  good  or  useful ; 
and  in  their  stead  will  come  men  of  better  motives 
and  larger  deeds. 

For  a  yacht   the   size  of  mine,  the  Delaware 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS. 

River  anywhere  above  Fort  Delaware  may  be  re- 
garded as  all  harbor.  It  was  my  custom  at  night 
to  run  in  along  shore  as  closely  as  I  dared  to,  and 
then  to  anchor  in  about  a  fathom,  or  a  fathom  and 
a  half  (according  to  the  tide)  of  water.  This  gave 
me  room  to  get  away  at  any  hour  I  desired  to,  and 
still  kept  me  out  of  the  way  of  boats  large  enough 
to  harm  me  or  mine  by  collision.  Then,  with  a 
reliable  anchor-light  out,  we  could  sleep  without 
anxiety.  Such,  at  least,  was  my  comforting  way 
of  looking  at  it.  One  night,  however,  I  remember 
we  laid  down  in  firm  assurance  that  things  were 
all  as  safe  as  could  be.  But  before  morning  I 
found  we  had  anchored  in  a  spot  where,  between 
wind  and  tide,  the  boat  had  tossed  enough  to  put 
her  light  out,  and  there  in  darkness  we  had  waited 
for  some  other  shore-loving  vessel  to  run  into  us. 
The  useful  lesson  was  not  lost,  and  in  future  we 
were  never  found  without  proper  safeguards.  The 
risk  run  then  became  a  healthy  episode  in  the 
cruise. 

The  Delaware  Bay,  by  which  I  mean  all  below 
Fort  Delaware,  is  a  more  turbulent  sheet  of  water, — 
one,  too,  which  is  whimsical  sometimes  besides. 
It  may,  almost  without  provocation,  so  far  as  wind 


l8o  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

goes,  be  quite  rough  enough  for  any  small  boat. 
In  less  than  half  an  hour  I  have  seen  a  very  ugly 
sea  "  kicked  up"  by  opposing  wind  and  tide,  and 
one  against  which  it  was  exceedingly  difficult  to 
beat.  Two  harbors  offer  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
bay, — Salem  Creek,  on  the  New  Jersey  side,  and 
the  channel  between  Reedy  Island  and  the  Dela- 
ware shore.  The  latter,  however,  furnishes  only  a 
partial  protection.  They  are  good  starting-points 
/  for  a  long  run  down  the  bay.  It  should  be  said 
that  Salem  Creek  is  a  hard  place  to  get  out  of,  if 
the  tide  be  against  you,  unless  the  wind  enables 
you  to  run  tolerably  "  free." 

Almost  due  east  from  the  light  on  the  lower 
end  of  Reedy  Island  is  the  entrance  to  Alloway's 
Creek,  on  the  Jersey  shore.  This  can  be  entered 
directly  by  a  vessel  drawing  four  feet  of  water. 
Run  within,  say,  two  or  three  hundred  yards  of  the 
shore,  and  the  creek-mouth  cannot  well  be  missed. 
It  affords  a  safe  and  most  desirable  anchorage  for 
small  craft  in  heavy  weather. 

About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  above  Duck  Creek 
light,  on  the  Delaware  side,  is  Duck  Creek.  The 
water  here  is  shoaler,  and,  unless  he  knows  the 
way  in,  the  amateur  had  better  use  his  lead-line 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS,     jgl 

pretty  freely.  From  this,  east  by  south,  nine  miles 
distant,  -is  the  Cohansey  light,  which  marks  the 
entrance  to  the  creek  of  the  same  name.  Here  is 
an  admirable  harbor,  which  any  one  with  a  chart 
before  him  may  easily  enter.  From  this  light, 
south  by  west,  out  in  the  middle  of  the  bay,  stands 
Ship  John  light.  I  have  called  attention  to  these 
lights  particularly  because,  first,  above  the  Cohan- 
sey light  about  a  mile,  and  extending  out  into  the 
bay  nearly  as  far,  there  is  a  shallow  spot  or  bar, 
which  is  in  daytime  often,  if  not  usually,  indicated 
by  the  "  tide  rip."  Beware  of  this  if  drawing  over 
two  feet  and  a  half  of  water.  Caught  there  with 
a  heavy  sea  running,  one  would  be  uncomfortable 
enough.  My  second  reason  for  speaking  particu- 
larly of  Ship  John  light  is,  that,  unless  you  are 
acquainted  with  the  water  there,  it  is  well  not  to 
attempt  crossing  from  the  western  side  until  Co- 
hansey light  is  about  east  of  you,  and  it  were 
better  to  go  still  more  to  the  south,  so  that  in 
crossing  you  would  go  to  the  north  of  and  about 
a  mile  from  "  Ship  John."  This,  of  course,  all 
implies  that  I  am  writing  for  amateurs  who  have  to 
feel  their  way.  There  is  a  third  reason  for  men- 
tioning that  light;  it  is  this:  after  you  have  en- 
16 


VACATION  CRUISING   IN 

tered  Cohansey  you  may  desire,  for  some  reason, 
to  find  a  particularly  safe,  quiet  anchorage.  Fol- 
low the  river  up,  say  about  a  mile  from  its  mouth, 
and  on  the  south  side,  around  the  first  bend,  just 
when  you  have  Cohansey  light  and  Ship  John  in 
range,  you  will  see  a  little  creek,  not  over  thirty 
or  forty  feet  wide.  There  is  water  enough  there, 
at  all  times,  for  a  vessel  drawing  three  and  a 
half  to  four  feet.  I  have  abundant  reason  for 
remembering  that  place,  for  we  lay  there  quietly 
through  a  storm  of  more  than  average  severity. 
Rail-birds  were  abundant  in  the  last  of  August, 
but  out  of  season. 

Were  I  seeking  a  place  on  the  bay  where  I 
could  go  and  spend  a  couple  of  weeks  in  Sep- 
tember in  my  yacht,  I  should,  I  think,  select  the 
Cohansey.  It  is  accessible,  safe,  within  easy 
reach  of  Sea  Breeze,  which  has  daily  communi- 
cation with  Philadelphia,  and  affords  good  sailing, 
while  there  is  good  fishing  only  a  few  miles  to  the 
south.  Besides  this,  the  water  is  salt,  and  the 
beach  is  very  good.  So  far  as  I  know,  there  are 
but  two  serious  objections  to  the  place, — first,  the 
green-head  flies  during  the  heat  of  the  day  are 
numerous  and  hungry ;  the  second  is,  the  number 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.     ^3 

of  mosquitoes  at  night.  I  suppose  one  must  en- 
dure the  former  if  he  would  go  bathing,  but  the 
second  were  most  effectually  excluded  from  my 
cabin  by  a  double  thickness  of  mosquito  netting. 

I  have  made  no  allusion  to  the  western  shore 
of  the  lower  Delaware  Bay  for  two  reasons, — first, 
because  I  know  nothing  of  it;  and,  second,  be- 
cause my  friends,  who  have  cruised  there,  do  not 
speak  of  it  as  being  so  attractive  as  the  eastern 
shore. 

Below  Sea  Breeze,  the  chart  shows  a  conspicuous 
landmark,  Ben  Davis's  Point.  Using  the  line  and 
following  the  shore  into  the  depths  of  the  little 
bay  around  the  point  (i.e.,  south  of  it),  one  may 
easily  run  into  Back  Creek,  if  he  draws  no  more 
than  three  feet.  We  found  a  schooner  on  the 
shoals  at  its  mouth,  and  were  told  by  the  crew 
that  there  were  some  ugly  cross-bars  there.  Here, 
however,  a  caution  is  requisite.  Going  out  of  this 
creek  to  the  south,  give  the  shore  a  wide  berth 
until  you  have  passed  the  black  buoy  about  two 
miles  to  the  southward.  Between  this  and  the 
shore  an  ugly  bar  "  makes  out."  We  crossed  it 
in  a  very  heavy  sea,  and  had  only  a  fathom  of 
water  on  the  hard  bottom. 


184  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

Once  the  buoy  is  passed,  the  yachtsman  may 
take  the  shore  down  to  the  next  resort,  Fortescue. 
Above  this,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  there  is 
another  creek,  which  is  safe  enough,  once  the 
bar  is  crossed.  I  was  "  brought  up"  there  at  half- 
tide  in  a  vessel  drawing  only  three  feet  of  water. 

From  Fortescue  to  Egg  Island  Point  light 
there  is  enough  of  water  for  ordinary  yachting 
along-shore.  If  one  is  familiar  with  the  place,  he 
may  take  a  pretty  direct  course  from  Fortescue  to 
the  light  just  named.  Rounding  this  point,  if 
the  wind  be  favorable,  even  a  stranger  may  keep 
a  couple  of  hundred  yards  from  the  shore  (not 
more),  and  steer  north  of  east  to  the  light-house 
south  of  Maurice  River,  until  the  mouth  is  just 
a  very  little  west  of  north,  when  he  may  run  past 
the  buoy  on  the  shoals  and  into  the  river.  The 
landmark  for  the  river-mouth  is  the  ships'  black- 
smith-shop, which  stands  a  little  way  up  in  the 
river.  There  is  no  building  with  which  it  can 
be  confounded  north  of  the  buoy  on  the  shoal. 
By  following  this  course  I  always  have  entered 
Maurice  River  in  a  light-draught  vessel,  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that,  unless  you  are  able  to 
take  the  channel  close  to  the  shore  as  you  round 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.     i%$ 

Egg  Island  Point  light,  then  you  must  give  it  a 
wide  berth  to  avoid  a  bar,  on  which  I  saw  a  yacht, 
drawing  only  three  feet  of  water,  strike  last  sum- 
mer. We  could  only  tender  sympathy  to  the  un- 
fortunates, but  it  was  the  crowning  mishap  to  a 
long  series  which  they  had  experienced.  There 
are  other  creeks  forming  good  harbors  on  either 
side  of  the  bay  from  Fort  Delaware  down  to 
Maurice  River  Cove.  But  the  amateur  yachtsman 
should  learn  to  enter  all  that  I  have  named,  and, 
of  course,  as  many  more  besides  as  he  can. 

From  Maurice  River  Cove  south,  I  should  say, 
no  amateur  should  go  until  he  has  become  a  toler- 
ably good  sailor,  or  has  one  with  him,  and  then 
only  in  a  strong,  safe,  well-provided  boat.  To 
point  this  statement  I  would  say  that  in  one  of 
my  trips  to'  Maurice  River,  a  boat  several  feet 
longer  than  mine  came  in  there  and  ran  ashore. 
It  was  the  only  thing  left  for  her  to  do.  There 
was  a  very  heavy  wind  and  high  sea  outside. 
The  captain,  who  had  been  hired  by  the  party, 
was  said  to  have  a  chart,  and  yet,  coming  up  from 
Cape  May,  he  managed  to  get  aground,  though 
drawing  but  three  feet  of  water ;  besides  this,  he 

split  his  jib  and  lost  his  only  anchor,  and  then 
1 6* 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

ran  by  accident  into  Maurice  River.  I  say  "  by 
accident,"  for  we  were  assured  that  even  if  he 
knew  of  the  place  he  did  not  know  the  way  in. 
Here  was  a  combination  of  blunders, — first,  to 
go  out  in  a  boat  any  part  of  whose  rigging  or 
ground-tackle  was  weak,  and  with  but  one  anchor ; 
second,  to  trust  to  a  man  who  was  not  known  to 
be  a  competent  navigator  in  all  weather,  and  who 
proved  to  be  wholly  unacquainted  with  the  bay. 
I  wish  I  could  think  such  trips  were  rare,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  I  think  they  are  only  too  common. 
There  should  always  be  at  least  two  -"good- 
holding"  anchors  on  board,  and,  no  matter  how 
heavy  the  cable  may  be,  it  will  pay  amateurs  to 
memorize  the  aphorism  that  "  No  chain  is  stronger 
than  its  weakest  link" 

The  sudden  coming  of  squalls  in  June  and  July 
and  part  of  August  cannot  be  too  strongly  im- 
pressed on  the  mind ;  it  may  serve  as  a  check  on 
foolhardiness.  Even  with  a  barometer,  one  cannot 
always  predict  the  severity  of  a  coming  squall. 
Besides  this,  too,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
blackness  of  the  clouds  is  not  necessarily  in  pro- 
portion to  the  force  of  the  wind.  I  have  observed 
that  the  "  saltest"  navigators  can  guess  very  wide 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS. 

of  the  truth  on  such  matters.  I  have  seen  the 
line  of  the  coming  squall  on  the  water,  but  half  a 
mile  away,  look  so  threatening  that  I  lowered  all 
my  sails  and  let  both  anchors  go ;  yet  when  the 
wind  reached  us  its  force  was  gone.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  have  seen  a  very  severe  "  blow"  where  the 
previous  indications  were  not  in  the  least  alarm- 
ing. Sailors  have  learned  to  watch  the  vessels 
to  the  windward,  if  there  be  any,  and  to  regulate 
their  own  conduct  by  the  effect  of  the  wind  on 
the  vessels  which  it  first  strikes.  So  far  as  any 
rule  for  general  guidance  can  be  given,  this  is 
about  as  good  as  any.  But,  after  all,  the  one 
cardinal  precept  for  such  circumstances  is,  Be 
sure  you  have  plenty  of  ballast,  securely  fastened, 
and  as  low  down  as  possible.  Next  to  this,  never 
carry  more  sail  than  you  actually  need.  Racing- 
rig  is  no  part  of  a  cruising  outfit ;  and  the  sooner 
we  all  learn  to  subordinate  speed  entirely  to 
safety,  the  sooner  will  the  drowning-list  be  short- 
ened enough  to  make  even  amateur  yachting  a 
perfectly  legitimate  and  safe  way  of  spending  a 
vacation. 

But  this  list  of  platitudes  is   long  enough  for 
any  one  man  to  inflict  on  his  readers.     It  is  to  be 


1 88  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

hoped  that  some  one  else  more  competent  will 
complete  the  needed  category. 

A  genuine  water-spout  is  among  the  meteoro- 
logical phenomena  rarely  seen  by  us.  Probably 
they  are  not  often  seen  by  any  one.  Lying  in 
Maurice  River,  during  the  storm  to  which  we  have 
already  alluded,  we  saw  a  moving  column  over 
the  water,  rotating  just  as  whirlwinds  do.  Like 
them,  too,  it  was  dust-colored  (but  what  colored 
this?).  It  had  the  usual  hour-glass  shape.  We 
did  not  see  any  sign  that  water  was  drawn  into  it 
from  below,  nor  did  we  see  any  fall  from  above. 
It  was  not  a  very  dreadful-looking  thing,  though 
what  it  might  have  been  to  a  passing  vessel  is 
more  than  I  can  conjecture. 

Maurice  River  and  the  Cove  into  which  it  opens 
are  full  of  strange  life,  visible  to  those  who  seek 
for  it.  In  fact,  they  are  little  worlds  with,  to  a 
certain  extent,  characters  of  their  own.  The  Cove 
proper  may  be  said  to  cover  an  area  of  probably 
thirty-five  square  miles.  Besides  this,  there  is,  ex- 
tending south,  toward  Cape  May,  and  on  the  same 
side  of  the  bay,  another  shallow  area  of  more  than 
double  this  size.  The  average  depth  of  water  in 
both  of  these  areas  is,  at  low  tide,  about  eight 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

feet,  in  some  places  becoming  as  low  as  three 
feet,  and  in  others  reaching  as  much  as  eighteen 
feet. 

It  is,  as  most  lovers  of  oysters  are  aware,  a  spot 
celebrated  for  the  quality  of  those  bivalves ;  and 
the  trade  in  them  has  produced  a  peculiar  class  of 
vessels,  shallow  and  swift,  as  well  as  a  peculiar 
class  of  men  to  sail  them. 

A  few  years  ago  one  of  a  party  with  which  I 
was  yachting  there  brought  to  the  surface  on 'his 
hook  a  fish,  the  like  of  which  our  "  skipper"  and  his 
associates  declared  had  never  been  seen  in  those 
waters  before.  It  was  a  Remora*  doubtless  a  wan- 
derer from  warmer  seas.  This  one  was  about  a 
foot  long,  rather  slender,  dark-colored,  and  had 
a  curious  sucking-disk  covering  the  head  and  the 
forward  part  of  the  back.  The  group  to  which 
the  Remora  belongs  has  been  made  the  subject  of 
an  enorrrfous  weight  of  encyclopaedic  knowledge. 
This  we  present  in  hope  that  some  one  of  more 
than  ordinary  comprehension  will  be  able  to  say 
what  it  really  does  mean  :  "  REMORA,  a  genus  of 


*  Some  of  these   species   do   sometimes  get   as   far  north  as 
Labrador  on  our  coast. 


190 


VAC 'A 77 'ON  CRUISING  IN 


fishes  which  Cuvier  placed  among  the  Discoboli, 
but  which  constitutes  an  entire  family,  Echinidae, 
near  the  Scombridae,  among  Acanthopteri."  That 
should  be  lucid  enough;  though,  on  the  whole, 
we  would  almost  rather  accept  the  ancient  notion 
that  this  same  Remora  was  nothing  but  a  fish 
whose  sucking  and  adhesive  capacity  was  entirely 
out  of  proportion  to  its  size.  Those  of  long  ago 
coined  the  name  from  the  word  remomri,  because 
the  nondescript  group  was  alleged  to  retard  sail- 
ing-vessels by  using  the  sucking-disk  to  adhere  to 
their  bottoms.  Group,  we  say,  because  there  are 
several  species  of  them,  some  edible,  and  others 
useful  in  another  way, — that  is,  by  attaching  them- 
selves to  turtles,  and  holding  on  until  Remora  and 
turtle  both,  are  pulled  to  the  surface  by  a  ring  and 
line  fastened  to  the  tail  of  the  fish  and  leading  to 
the  hand  of  a  fisherman  above. 

The  sucking-disk  on  our  specimen  was  about 
three  inches  long.  The  margin  was  slightly 
raised,  thick,  soft,  and  flexible.  In  the  interior  of 
the  inclosure  was  a  series  of  transverse  ridges, 
which  anatomists  assure  us  are  simply  modified 
parts  of  the  first  fin  on  the  back.  These  have 
muscles  attached  to  them,  and  may  be  elevated  so 


CHESAPEAKE   AND   DELAWARE   BAYS.     1^1 

as  to  increase  the  depth  of  the  cavity  on  the  cen- 
tral surface  of  the  disk.  Thus  the  vacuum  was 
formed  on  which  the  adhesive  power  of  the  disk 
depended. 

The  ancient  Romans  had  the  idea  that  this 
fish  retarded  the  progress  of  ships,  as  we  have 
already  said ;  and  this  became  woven  into  their 
history,  and  possibly,  also,  to  a  certain  extent,  into 
sea-side  mythology.  Did  Antony's  vessel  fail 
to  come  up  in  time  to  the  battle  of  Actium?  It 
was,  because  the  Fates  had  fixed  a  Remora  to  the 
commander's  vessel.  It  is  almost  a  sin  to  doubt 
the  tale,  but  it  is  probable  that  Egypt's  queen  at- 
tracted Antony's  ships  more  than  the  Remora  did. 

However,  to  give  the  fish  its  due,  it  does  use 
this  disk  to  fasten  itself  to  vessels.  Stranger  still, 
it  thus  attaches  itself  to  other,  larger  fish,  and  so 
escapes  their  attacks, — a  mode  of  defence  which 
appears  to  be  almost  unique. 

Familiarity  with  common  objects  induces  a  cer- 
tain disregard  for  them, — I  do  not  say  contempt, 
for  the  old  adage  is  probably  too  strong.  To  my 
unaccustomed  eyes  the  external  growths  on  the 
shells  of  living  oysters  were  a  source  of  perpetual 
wonder.  Sponges  and  diatoms,  one  will  almost  cer- 


192 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


tainly  find,  and  much  more  besides.  For  objects 
large  enough  to  be  handled,  and  down  to  those 
visible  only  through  the  magic  tube  which  increases 
vision  a  thousand-fold,  the  oyster-shell  furnished 
life  and  foothold.  I  know  it  is  a  great  risk  for  one, 
in  this  science-ridden  age,  to  write  about  anything 
with  so  hard  a  name  as  diatom,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  still  larger  names  with  which  men  of  learning 
insist  on  ticketing  these  little  organisms.  But  if 
the  public  do  not  care  enough  for  them  to  ex- 
amine and  name  them,  men  should  not  complain 
if  the  universal  language  of  science  lays  hold  on 
them.  At  all  events,  the  long  name  is  no  fault 
of  the  little  plants,  and  it  were  surely  hard  if  the 
name  should  sound  so  large  as  to  prevent  their 
case  being  heard.  These  diatoms  are  wonderful 
plants,  microscopic  in  size,  thriving  alike  in  fresh, 
or  in  salt  water,  and  found  in  the  oceans  about 
either  pole,  as  well  as  under  the  equator.  During 
their  life,  in  a  small  way,  they  render  signal  ser- 
vice to  their  animal  neighbors  by  giving  off 
oxygen  to  the  water  for  them,  and  by  making 
food  upon  which  they  may  live.  When  dead, 
they  leave  a  solid  memorial  behind.  This  memo- 
rial is,  indeed,  the  most  characteristic  thing  about 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE   BAYS. 


193 


them,  and  is  made  of  the  purest  silica, — that  sifted, 
as  it  were,  by  the  organs  and  processes  of  life, 
and  then  deposited  as  a  shell  around  the  living 
part  within.  The  green  interior  of  the  diatom 
dies,  decays,  and  disappears ;  but  the  sandy  shell 
remains  for  all  time,  and  may,  when  in  vast  numbers, 
even  serve  as  a  foundation  to  build  cities  upon,  or 
may  choke  up  harbors.  It  may  pass  unchanged 
in  shape,  unaltered  in  its  wonderfully  delicate 
markings,  from  the  depths  of  the  ocean,  through 
the  base  of  a  volcano,  and  be  thrown  out  in  an 
eruption,  and  finally  be  found,  bleached,  beautified, 
and  perfect,  thousands  of  feet  above  the  sea  on 
the  flanks  of  the  fiery  peak.  This  is  no  fable,  but 
sober,  scientific  fact;  for  on  the  sides  of  Mount 
Erebus,  as  near  to  the  south  pole  as  men  care  to 
go,  these  skeleton  memorials  may  be  found  now. 
Histories,  too,  these  same  little  plants  may  be- 
come :  those  of  to-day  recording  for  the  future  the 
advance  or  retreat  of  ocean,  just  as  those  of  the 
past  have,  by  their  sandy  shells,  declared  the  re- 
treat of  the  waves  from  what  are  now  inland  spots. 
So  they  tell  us  of  a  retreat  from  Richmond,  when, 
inch  by  inch,  before  man  was,  the  waves  in  which 

the  diatoms  lived,  retired  and  left  the  soil  on  which 
in  17 


194  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  human  hosts  contended  so  recently.  The 
skeletons  of  men,  the  skeletons  of  diatoms,  lying 
on  the  same  spot,  each  tell  of  strife. 

"  There  rolls  the  deep,  where  grew  the  tree. 
O  earth !  what  changes  thou  hast  seen  ! 
There,  where  the  long  street  roars,  hath  been 
The  stillness  of  the  central  sea." 

Diatom  life,  whether  on,  or  in  the  oyster,  or 
wherever  found,  is  a  strange  tale, — one  which 
should  hardly  be  started  save  in  the  presence  of  a 
good  microscope.  Take  up  some  standard  work 
on  botany,  and  learn  how  curiously  they  are  re- 
produced :  by  one  individual  dividing  its  interior, 
living  portion  into  two  parts,  and  then  each  half 
secreting  a  new  shell  around  its  outer  face,  so  that 
when  these  perfected  halves  become  independent 
individuals,  each  is  made  up  of  one  old  and  one 
new  shell.  But  sooner  or  later  the  succeeding 
generations  become  too  small  to  represent  the 
species,  by  this  mode  of  reproduction.  A  new 
process  now  comes  in  to  reproduce  full-sized  in- 
dividuals. Two  distinct  plants  unite,  and  their 
contents  grow  to  maximum  size,  then  take  on 
their  characteristic  sandy  coat,  and  begin  again 
the  first  mode  of  reproduction.  There  is  infinite 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS. 


195 


variety  in  almost  infinitesimal  size  among  these 
plants.  Look  them  up,  find  their  illustrations  in 
Carpenter's  work  on  the  Microscope,  and  be  con- 
vinced how  wonderful  they  are.  Meanwhile  let 
me  ask  my  friend,  Professor  Macloskie,  to  tell,  in 
his  clear  way,  what  hints  they  furnish.  "The 
shells  (or  shields,  as  they  are  termed)  are  chiselled 
and  ornamented  with  markings  which  are  charac- 
teristic of  the  twelve  hundred  or  more  species 
known.  Some  of  them  are  circular,  some  ellip- 
tical, and  so  on  through  varying  forms,  as  tri- 
angles, squares,  lozenge-forms,  fans,  boat-forms, 
sigma-curves,  stars,  spiders'  web,  and  the  radiant 
sun.  Fancy  may  detect  all  sorts  of  beautiful 
forms  in  their  shields,  and  artists  in  the  precious 
metals  may  here  find  an  inexhaustible  mine  of 
new  suggestions  for  elegant  designs.  The  shields 
are  adorned  with  systems  of  hollow  pyramids  or 
intersecting  lines  and  bands.  High  powers  of  the 
microscope,  with  special  arrangements  of  oblique 
illumination,  are  required  to  show  these,  and  new 
advances  in  microscopic  constructions  are  signal- 
ized by  success  in  resolving  diatoms  that  had 
baffled  former  efforts.  Many  forms  are  supposed 
to  have  markings  which  have  not  yet  been  dis- 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

covered,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  our 
interpretations  of  some  parts  are  erroneous,  be- 
cause the  light  which  we  employ  is  made  up  of 
waves  which  are  too  coarse  for  such  fine  work. 
Thus  it  is  not  by  the  fault  of  the  microscope,  but 
by  the  clumsiness  of  light,  that  we  find  ourselves 
bewildered."  *  Had  Hans  Christian  Andersen 
been  fascinated  by  these  small  things  as  much 
as  some  men  of  less  genius  are,  he  would  have 
clothed  their  whole  life  with  the  charms  of  a  fairy 
tale,  and  made  their  history  plain  enough  to  have 
been  read  in  the  nursery. 

Squids'  eggs  are  those  half  jelly-like,  olive- 
shaped  bodies  which  one  finds  so  often  in  Sep- 
tember adhering  to  the  shells  of  the  living  oyster. 
Some  people  call  them  sea-grapes,  but  the  oyster- 
men  have  fearful  names  for  them.  They  are  little, 
if  any,  heavier  than  water,  and  hence,  when  agi- 
tated by  a  heavy  storm,  the  water  sweeps  over  the 
cove  bottom,  and  the  light  bunches  of  sea-grapes 
float  away  bodily  along  with  the  oysters,  which 
they  help  to  buoy  up.  The  oyster-farmer  may 

*  "  Macloskie's  Botany,"  p.  220,  et  seq.,  a  work  furnishing  exact 
information  in  a  most  readable  form. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE   BAYS. 


197 


thus  find  his  whole  crop  carried  away  by  the  wind 
and  waves.  To  be  sure,  it  is  almost  an  unheard-of 
thing  among  landsmen,  but  the  oysterman  knows 
it  is  only  too  true  and  too  common.  "  Dumb  as 
an  oyster"  is  a  remark  often  heard ;  but  whatever 
their  intelligence  may  be,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to 
their  extreme  sensitiveness.  A  heavy  clap  of 
thunder,  or  a  hard  jar  received  by  the  vessel  car- 
rying them,  it  is  affirmed,  may  kill  a  whole  cargo. 
The  dip  of  your  oars  in  the  water  as  you  approach 
an  oyster-bed  may  cause  every  one  of  the  thou- 
sands of  shells,  over  which  you  float,  to  close. 
Among  the  foes  with  which  the  oyster  has  to  con- 
tend is  the  crab.  Indeed,  there  comes  to  us  from 
the  Middle  Ages  a  tale  that  the  crab  dropped  a 
pebble  between  the  open  shells,  which  prevented 
their  closure,  so  that,  without  danger  to  himself, 
he  was  enabled  to  capture  the  animal  he  was  after. 
But  the  little  crab  which  we  find  inside  the 
oyster-shell,  and  which  we  eat  as  a  luxury,  is  quite 
another  animal.  Naturalists  designate  it  as  Pinno- 
theres. One  might  suppose  that  so  hard  a  name 
was  in  some  way  intended  as  a  punishment ;  but 
the  oyster  crab  is  a  friend,  not  a  foe,  to  his  host. 

This  crab  is  a  real  nursery,  on  which  multitudes 
17* 


198  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

of  still  smaller  animals,  with  still  larger  names, 
live, — Zoothamium.  It  is  too  bad,  but  that  is 
the  fact.  Now,  the  whole  tale  appears  to  be  this : 
the  Zoothamium  is  on  the  Pinnotheres,  and  the 
Pinnotheres  lives  inside  the  oyster,  which,  in  turn, 
eats  the  Zoothamium.  This  is  all  very  strange; 
but  that  when  so  insignificant  a  thing  as  a  Zootha- 
mium happens  to  die,  and  fall  off  from  the  stalk 
which  supported  it,  still  smaller  and  less  consequen- 
tial things — "  rod-like  vibriones" — should  grow  out 
of  the  stalk,  is  still  stranger.  It  is  almost  past 
belief  that  there  should  be  so  much  besides  the 
oyster  inside  the  shell ;  but  as  the  official  docu- 
ment, which  was  prepared  with  infinite  care,  says 
so,  we  must  believe  it  to  be  true.  It  would  be 
a  very  long  chapter  if  we  were  to  tell  all  that  can 
be  told  about  the  friends  and  foes  of  the  oyster. 
Not  only  is  animal  life  leagued  against  it,  but  the 
elements  conspire  to  destroy  it.  The  wind  agitates 
the  water,  this  stirs  up  the  fine  mud  and  sand, 
which,  entering  the  open  shell,  fill  the  oyster's 
respiratory  organs,  and  it  dies  from  suffocation. 

The  statement  would  be  incredible,  if  it  were  not 
made  on  the  best  authority,  that  not  one  out  of  a 
million  eggs  spawned  becomes  an  adult,  edible 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS. 


199 


oyster.  The  very  process  of  fecundation  in  our 
American  oyster  involves  a  chance  against  the 
species ;  for  the  eggs  and  the  male  elements  are 
left  to  meet  as  best  they  can  after  extrusion  from 
the  animal,  and  can  only  complete  the  reproductive 
function  if  wind  or  tide  bring  them  in  contact. 

Hence  appears  the  urgent  need  of  such  investi- 
gations as  those  undertaken  by  the  general  and 
by  some  of  the  State  governments.  The  impor- 
tance of  this  oyster  trade,  now  in  its  infancy,  may 
be  estimated,  when  it  is  known  that  the  value, 
at  first  hand,  of  the  Delaware  Bay  crop  each 
year  is  about  $2,425,000.  Our  young  life  on 
this  continent  has  produced  marked  deviations  in 
our  way  of  looking  at  things  as  compared  with 
Old  World  views.  Older  nations  have  learned  by 
experience  to  husband  national,  as  well  as  indi- 
vidual, resources.  But  two  and  a  half  centuries 
ago  our  ancestors  landed  on  these  Western  slopes, 
and  found  them  so  prolific  in  forest  wealth  that 
before  an  acre  could  be  cultivated  it  must  be 
cleared.  Just  about  two  hundred  years  back,  good 
William  Penn  wrote  most  enthusiastically  con- 
cerning the  food  which  the  waters  contained. 
Abundance  in  flood  and  in  forest,  induced  habits 


2QO  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

of  extravagance,  which  have  become  so  deeply, 
instilled  that  we  can  hardly  recognize  the  tradi- 
tional wisdom  of  older  countries,  even  when  it  is 
pointed  out.  We  have  come  to  regard  our  pam- 
pered habits  of  life  and  thought  as  the  normal 
ones.  Now,  in  the  full  vigor  of  early  youth,  with 
high  hopes  of  an  unexampled  prosperity  before 
it,  the  nation  finds  it  has  squandered  the  good 
things  of  its  heritage.  The  forests  are  disappear- 
ing from  the  land  and  the  fish  from  the  sea.  By 
great  good  fortune,  prophets  came  to  warn  and 
masters  to  teach.  Baird,  Hough,  Price,  Sargent, 
Brooks,  and  Ryder  are  names  that  will  be  better 
known  half  a  century  hence,  even  than  now,  be- 
cause the  importance  of  their  present  work  will 
appear  greater  as  time  passes.  Because  a  wise 
man,  who  was  a  power  in  the  land,  and  who  but 
lately  left  us  to  join  the  "  silent  majority,"  said  he 
had  no  heart  for  scientific  investigation  after  it 
became  useful,  other  weaker  ones,  without  his 
genius,  have  emblazoned  his  watchword  on  their 
banners. 

Let  it  be  known,  then,  that  the  names  recorded 
above,  are  of  those,  who  do  not  scorn  to  %make 
their  knowledge  useful,  however  much  they  value 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    2QI 

it  in  the  abstract.  The  streams  restocked  with 
fish,  the  beds  replenished  with  oysters  are  practi- 
cal illustrations  of  the  value  of  science,  worth  as 
much  as  ever  was  or  ever  can  be  written  on  the 
morphology  of  the  star-fish.  I  do  not  disparage 
the  value  of  the  latter,  either.  All  abstract  scien- 
tific studies  confer  standing  and  power  on  the 
nation,  but  their  extreme  advocates  must  not  re- 
veal to  the  world  how  one-sided  their  studies  may 
have  made  them,  or  they  will  bring  all  science 
into  contempt.  Scientific  arrogance  is  the  spirit 
which,  of  all  others,  the  culture  of  succeeding 
generations  will  least  tolerate.  Even  abstract  sci- 
ence may  come  to  be  regarded  in  the  future  much 
as  we  regard  some  learned  pursuits  of  earlier 
times,  though  I  sincerely  hope  not. 

-One  out  of  a  million  oyster  eggs  reaches  ma- 
turity !  It  was  somewhat  so  once  with  fish  spawn. 
But  now  these  dwellers  in  the  deep  appear  to  be 
transplanted  and  hatched,  one  is  tempted  to  say, 
with  about  the  same  certainty  as  chickens.  Within 
the  year,  the  daily  papers  have  told  us  that  John 
Ryder  had  succeeded  in  raising  young  oysters, 
after  artificial  fecundation  of  the  eggs,  in  natural 
inclosures.  This  is  one  of  the  great  achievements 


2O2  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

of  the  age.  It  is  a  food-producing  conquest  over 
the  thousand  causes  which  conspired  against  starv- 
ing men  and  women.  Let  it  be  told  all  over  the 
land,  that  towards  this  end,  that  patient  investi- 
gator has  worked  when  others  slept ;  worked  when 
others  saw  no  reward  for  his  labors ;  worked  year 
in  and  year  out  with  a  persistency  which  was 
sublime.  It  is  just  such  studies  that  the  govern- 
ment does  well  to  encourage.  The  following  ex- 
tract comes  from  the  American  of  November  loth, 
1883: 

OYSTER-BREEDING    FROM    ARTIFICIALLY-FERTIL- 
IZED  EGGS. 

Mr.  John  A.  Ryder,  embryologist  to  the  United  States  Fish 
Commission,  to  whose  labors  in  oyster  culture  we  had  occasion  to 
refer  in  the  columns  of  a  recent  issue  of  this  journal,  thus  briefly 
summarizes  the  results  of  his  latest  researches  in  this  important 
branch  of  economical  biology :  "  While  it  is  too  soon  to  affirm 
that  artificial  breeding  may  be  profitably  available  on  an  extensive 
scale  in  practical  oyster  culture,  our  experiment  has  demonstrated 
a  number  of  very  important  facts.  These  are:  (i)  Oyster  spat 
maybe  reared  from  artificially-fertilized  eggs;  (2)  the  spat  will 
grow  just  as  fast  in  such  inclosures  [artificially-excavated  ponds, 
connected  by  a  guarded  passage-way  with  the  open  water  of  the 
sea]  as  in  the  open  water ;  (3)  food  is  rapidly  generated  in  such 
inclosures ;  (4)  the  density  of  the  water  in  the  ponds  is  not  ma- 
terially affected  by  rains  or  leaching  from  the  banks;  (5)  ponds 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS. 


203 


are  readily  excavated  in  salt-marsh  lands,  and  can  in  all  prob- 
ability be  used  for  fattening  and  growing  Ostrea  Virginica  for 
market  just  as  successfully  as  Ostrea  edulis  and  angulata  are 
grown  by  a  similar  method  oa  the  coasts  of  France.  Pond  cul- 
ture where  there  are  salt  marshes  adjoining  arms  of  the  sea,  the 
waters  of  which  have  a  density  below  1.020,  can  doubtless  be 
carried  on  profitably  in  connection  with  intelligent  use  of  simple, 
cheap  collecting  apparatus  placed  in  both  open  and  confined 
waters  to  catch  a  « set'  of  spat,  which  can  then  be  transferred  to 
ponds  or  open  beds." 

When  we  were  in  Maurice  River  there  was 
nothing  to  indicate  the  activity  which  the  first 
day  of  September  would  bring  to  those  waters. 
Then  a  hundred  sail,  or  more,  of  trim  sloops  and 
schooners,  manned  by  hardy,  enterprising  sailors, 
would  move  to  and  fro  across  the  dredging- 
grounds,  plying  a  vocation  which  promises  to 
grow  into  still  more  stupendous  proportions. 

It  is  a  source  of  regret  that  the  child-like,  but 
not  too  moral  sailor  of  a  generation  ago  is  disap- 
pearing from  our  wharves.  He  of  the  old  type, 
who  made  the  hour  of  the  young  ebb  tide  wildly 
melodious  with  his  songs  as  he  "  hove  the  anchor 
short,"  or  hoisted  sail  for  departure  to  "  furrin 
parts,"  may  have  gone  with  the  advent  of  the  un- 
welcome, alien,  steam  "  ocean  tramps"  that  carry 


2O4  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

our  produce  away,  when  we  should  do  it  ourselves. 
But  in  a  measure,  this  new  race,  landsmen  in 
summer  and  oystermen  in  winter,  has  taken  his 
place.  Go  among  them,  and  you  will  find  them  a 
class  by  themselves,  who  have  their  own  language 
and  their  own  views  of  life.  They  may  be  as 
rough  and  as  hard-shelled  as  the  bivalve  they 
capture,  but,  then,  like  it,  they  are  good  enough 
within.  Sharp  at  a  bargain,  mayhap  suspicious 
of  new-comers,  you  will  find  them  generous  to  a 
friend.  You  can  trust  them  in  the  hour  of  need,  and 
may  feel  sure  that  a  favor  is  never  lost  on  them. 

•  On  our  inland  waters  there  is  no  harder  life  than 
that  which  they  lead  in  winter.  So  long  as  their 
vessels  "can  live"  and  carry  sail  there  is  no 
weather  in  which  they  do  not  go.  Their  business 
is  fairly  remunerative, — at  least,  enough  so  to  make 
them  stick  to  it  from  early  manhood  on.  There 
is  no  "  easy  berth"  on  their  boats,  and  one  would 
find,  that  life  through  they 

"  Tugged  at  it  night  and  day, 

Till  each  was  a  saint  in  glory, — 
If  he  happened  to  go  that  way." 

I  cannot  help  admiring  the  persistent  fortitude 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    2O$ 

with  which  they  work  and  sail  when  even  the 
decks  and  rigging  are  covered  with  ice,  and  always 
think  of  them  as  a  sort  of  subdued  Vikings,  with 
all  the  hardihood  of  the  prototype,  and  none  of 
the  viciousness  which  Taine  has  so  vigorously 
portrayed. 

This  oyster-dredging  is  very  suggestive,  and  a 
person  wonders,  when  he  sees  the  vessels  dragging 
their  great  iron  rakes  over  the  oyster-beds,  and 
finds  the  men  amid  the  filth  and  discomfort  of  the 
business,  that  so  many  are  willing  to  engage  in  it. 
But,  then,  take  our  ship  of  state.  See  her  sail- 
ing over  the  shoals  and  dragging  a  host  of  rakes 
that  stir  up  more  mud  and  dirtier  than  all  the 
dredges  of  Maurice  River  Cove,  fouling  as  they 
go,  the  surroundings  in  which  quiet  folk  must  live. 
Probably,  after  all,  hunting  oysters  is  a  cleaner, 
more  reputable  profession  than  hunting  office. 

There  is  one  peculiarity  about  the  inhabitants 
of  Central  and  Southern  New  Jersey.  I  say  pe- 
culiarity because  I  have  nowhere  else  seen  the 
characteristic  so  marked.  I  mean  their  rational 
enjoyment  of  life.  Busy  as  the  busiest  at  times, 
yet,  again,  say  in  August,  you  may  find  them, 

sometimes  by  thousands,  often  by  hundreds,  at  the 
18 


2o6  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

shore  of  the  bay,  near  Maurice  River,  engaged  in 
a  thoroughly  old-fashioned  picnic.  Such  a  time  as 
they  have  refreshes  a  whole  neighborhood,  and 
brushes  away  the  gloom  and  business  monotony 
from  an  entire  community.  I  have  somewhere 
read  that  once  a  year  the  Laplander  brings  his 
reindeer  from  off  the  mountains  and  moorlands  to 
the  sea-shore,  and  allows  them  there  to  drink  and 
to  bathe  in  the  salt  water  to  their  full  content,  that 
they  may  go  away  invigorated  for  the  rest  of  the 
year.  Just  so  these  sensible  folk  gather  at  the 
bay  from  miles  and  miles  away  to  renew  their 
youth,  meet  their  friends,  and  to  wash  the  burden 
of  daily  care  from  off  their  souls.  Some  come  in 
wagons,  some  in  vessels  by  water,  some  tent  on  the 
mosquito-plagued  shore,  but  all  enjoy  themselves. 
Wet,  stormy  days,  when  one-  does  not  sail,  are 
not  wholly  lost  time.  There  is  some  quiet  enjoy- 
ment, if  not,  indeed,  a  sort  of  education,  gained  by 
lying  in  the  berth  and  listening  to  the  rain  patter- 
ing on  deck.  It  may  be  that  in  some  corner  of 
the  brain  lurks  a  cell  or  two  whose  characteristics 
are  inherited  from  agile  ancestors  that  swung  by 
prehensile  tails  under  the  palm-leaves  of  tropical 
forests,  and  enjoyed  such  shelter  because  they  had 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


2O7 


no  better.  How  else  can  we  explain  the  pleasure 
with  which  men  listen  to  the  falling  rain-drops  on 
the  tent  ?  I  suppose  those  were  what  most  active 
men  would  call  lazy  days ;  but  this  term  is  quite 
too  hard.  They  were,  rather,  recuperative  days, 
in  which  animal  energy  was  stored,  until  its  very 
excess  obliged  us  to  break  out  into  some  exercise 
of  mind  or  body. 

In  "  Mose"  this  explosion  was  usually  retro- 
spective in  character.  He  was  not  exactly  "  rocked 
in  the  cradle  of  the  deep,"  but  he  began  "  goin'  to 
sea  when  he  cudn't  do  nuthing  but  run  roun'  de 
deck."  His  brain  is  full  of  stormy  remembrances, 
and  I  suppose  it  is  pleasant  when  one  is  in  a  good, 
quiet  harbor  to  call  back  to  mind  the  storms  when 
there  was  no  such  resting-place  available.  "  Mose" 
meditates  a  long  time,  then  he  breaks  out  suddenly 
with,  "  Cap'n,  dis  heah  'minds  me."  "  Of  what, 
Mose?"  I  like  to  encourage  yarns  in  the  cabin 
when  the  wind  is  whistling  outside.  They  make  me 
content  to  stay  where  I  am  and  await  more  peaceful 
weather.  "  Dis  heah  'minds  me  ob  de  nite  I  was  a 
comin'  out'n  de  Potomac  in  January.  It  was  a 
snowin'  and  a  blowin',  and  we  was  loaded  down 
deep,  and  had  a  big  deck-load  on.  Cap'n,  he  put 


208  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

de  schooner  in  Cornfield  Harbor,  and  jis  when  he 
was  a  goin'  to  let  de  anker  go,  de  wind  cum  round 
from.de  sou'east.  '  Dis  heah  ain't  no  good  place 
fur  us,  boys/  sais  de  cap'n.  We  hauled  de  sheets 
aft,  and  headed  de  schooner  cross  de  Potomac  fur 
Yeocomico  River ;  but  afore  we  got  dere  de  wind 
hauled  round,  first  one  way,  den  anoder  way,  and 
it  jist  howled  and  blowed  all  it  knowed  how. 
Did  you  say  dark  ?  Yes,  you  cudn't  see  yur  hand ; 
and  it  snow'd  till  it  cudn't  snow  no  harder.  I 
reckin  we  was  half-way  acrosst  when  we  split  our 
jib ;  den  we  parted  our  main-sheet.  '  Dis  heah  is 
dangersum,  or  wuss,  boys,'  says  cap'n.  Fust  a 
gust  wud  hit  her,  till  you'd  a  thought  everything 
would  go ;  den  a  back  flaw  wud  strike  her,  and  way 
wud  go  de  boom,  till  we  spected  it  wud  jist  carry 
de  masts  out.  Twicet  we  boys  went  into  de  rig- 
gin'  ;  but  den  dat  wusn't  no  good  place,  fur  suah. 
Sartin  as  dem  sticks  went  out'n  her  we'd  gone,  too. 
All  on  a  sudden  cap'n  sings  out,  '  Boys,  dis  head- 
wind's gwine  to  cum  steddy  out'n  de  sou.  Hard  a 
lee !'  sais  he.  De  schooner  cum  up  into  de  wind 
and  looked  out  into  de  bay.  Reckin  was  'bout 
midnite  wen  we  headed  north,  and  I  tell  you  it  was 
squally,  fur  suah.  We  shuk  a  reef  out'n  de  main- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

s'l,  and  started  fur  Patuxent.  We  know'd  drivin' 
her  so  hard  was  openin'  de  ole  schooner's  seams ; 
but  we  was  goin'  sumwere  wen  we  did  git  started. 
I  tell  you,  de  decks  was  wet  and  slippery  wid 
slush.  Purty  soon  de  wind  settled  down  and  cum 
from  sou'east,  and  den  it  jist  screamed ;  but  we 
kep'  her  goin'.  I  tell  you  we  give  her  all  de  can- 
vas she'd  stand.  'Twas  a  sin  how  we  made  her 
carry  sail.  Reckin  'twas  'bout  three  o'clock  in  de 
mornin'  wen  we  let  her  anker  go  in  Patuxent. 
Wen  I  went  below  dat  nite  I  kinder  made  up  my 
mind  dat  I'd  quit  de  bisness.  Dat  was  nigh  on't 
seven  years  ago ;  and  here  I  am,  on  de  water  yit." 

"  And  what  a  vision  greets  their  weary  gaze ! 
What  realms  of  wonder,  chaos  of  wild  dreams 
Out-chaosed,  kingdoms  and  seas  of  tumult!" 

Watching  the  "  fiddler"— that  is,  the  "fiddler 
crab"  (Gelasinms  pugilator] — was  a  sort  of  kill- 
time  employment  for  a  wet  day.  In  what  one- 
sided currents  the  thoughts  of  men  run  !  How 
many  profound  memoirs  our  naturalists  have 
written  upon  bilateral  symmetry  as  illustrated  in 
the  animal  kingdom !  yet  not  a  single  paper  has 
been  produced  on  the  quadrilateral  awkwardness 

of  this  betwixt-tide  nondescript.     Some  friends  of 
o  18* 


2io  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

mine  have,  by  eavesdropping  and  spying  in  his 
muddy  domain,  been  inquiring  into  his  habits ;  but 
it  is  little  they  have  discovered  concerning  him, 
save  that,  come  day  or  come  night,  when  the  tide 
is  out,  he  is  most  industriously  engaged  in  carry- 
ing dirt  out  of  the  depths  of  his  burrow.  So  far, 


THE  FIDDLER  CRAB. 


then,  as  known,  his  highest  ambition  is  to  dig  his 
cellar  deeper.  Go  ashore  and  see  the  flying  troop 
darting  towards  the  shelter  of  their  homes,  and 
then  stopping  outside,  to  see  if  you  will  come 
closer.  They  do  have  a  use,  however,  that  of 
serving  to  illustrate  certain  human  peculiarities, 
— crabbedness  as  associated  with  cowardliness. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS,    2II 

Sometimes,  when  approached,  that  one  overshad- 
owing claw  is  raised  in  a  warning  and  in  a  "  come- 
if-you-dare"  spirit ;  but  walk  one  step  nearer,  and 
it  is  instantly  lowered  to  where  the  back  and 
shoulders  ought  to  be,  while  the  whole  ungainly 
anatomy  trundles  hastily  away  under  the  burden 
of  that  same  threatening  arm.  Amphibious, — well, 
one  must  neither  think  nor  say  things  too  hard 
about  an  animal  whose  hold  on  life  is  limited  to 
the  narrow  strip  of  earth  between  high-  and  low- 
water.  Long  before  this,  most  of  those  who 
started  with  him  must  have  gone  for  good  to  one 
element  or  the  other.  If  he  does  excite  our  sym- 
pathy for  the  hardness  of  his  lot,  he,  at  the  same 
time,  awakens  our  admiration  when  we  see  the 
fleet-footed,  multitudinous  progeny  he  has  raised 
on  this  undesirable,  abandoned  shore-line. 

When  we  left  Camden  we  started  with  an  in- 
dustrious colony  of  ants  on  board.  How  they 
came  was  always  a  mystery,  for  the  boat  had 
never  once  been  alongside  of  a  wharf  during  our 
stay  there.  We  were  no  sooner  started  than  they 
appeared,  and  then  disappeared.  Where  they 
went  was  equally  a  mystery,  and  one  which  we 
never  solved ;  but  before  long  we  learned  to  as- 


212  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

sociate  their  reappearance  with  a  falling  barometer. 
When  a  storm  threatened,  these  ants  (and  along 
with  them  the  flies)  came  out  in  force  ;  but  a  more 
harmless  set  of  stowaways  than  they  never  stole 
passage  on  any  vessel.  They  neither  troubled  our 
provisions,  nor  came  about  us  by  day,  or  by  night. 
Man's  inhumanity  has  been  well  denounced; 
one  sees  it  everywhere,  sometimes  absolutely 
needful,  sometimes  pardonable,  sometimes  inex- 
cusable, but  always  and  everywhere  unpleasant  to 
contemplate.  It  is  not  in  the  mere  destruction 
of  life  that  its  greatest  iniquity  lies,  but  in  the 
torture  inflicted  upon  animals  which  are  small  and 
of  but  little  use  as  food.  I  can  hardly  think  that 
the  slaughter  of  an  ox  brings  with  it  the  pain  that 
a  fractured  limb  does  to  an  unlucky  bird.  There 
were  places  along  the  Delaware  (and  elsewhere) 
where  bird-murder  was  at  its  height  in  August. 
Early  in  the  morning,  and  at  dusk  in  the  evening, 
when  the  birds  were  flying  most  actively,  the 
guns  were  heard  constantly.  All  available  places 
where  the  passing  flocks  could  alight,  were 
chosen  by  "pot-hunters"  for  their  blinds,  whence, 
the  instant  the  birds  stopped,  the  contents  of  one 
or  both  barrels  were  jpoured  into  them.  At 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    213 

many  places  along  the  usual  lines  of  flight  in  the 
marshes,  dead  bushes  were  raised  to  afford  resting- 
places,  and  thus  to  tempt  the  weary  birds  to  stop 
and  meet  their  fate.  It  is  not  for  those  killed 
outright  that  I  raise  this  "hue  and  cry."  That 
may  all  be  justified  by  the  mouthful  of  nutriment 
each  small  body  furnishes.  It  has,  too,  a  market 
value.  But  how  about  the  scores  of  maimed 
victims,  with  broken  wings  and  legs,  that  each 
day  of  such  sport,  or  such  business,  leaves  suffer- 
ing or  starving  in  the  marshes?  If  there  were 
a  single  element  in  such  shooting  which  could 
take  away  the  curse  of  cold-blooded  torture,  it 
might  be  looked  upon  with  toleration.  Is  there 
no  more  sportsmanlike,  less  horrible,  and  equally- 
lucrative  manner  in  which  this  business  can  be 
carried  on  ? 

One  is  likely  to  be  regarded  as  super-sensi- 
tive for  finding  fault  with  such  deeds.  The 
charge  may  be  true  enough  as  public  opinion 
goes,  and  if  it  is,  then  I  hasten  to  accept  it  with 
all  the  dement  which  attaches  to  it.  I  am  in  full 
sympathy  with  those  maimed  victims,  and  utterly 
out  of  sympathy  with  their  destroyers.  At  the 
same  time,  I  was  and  still  am  fond  of  the  rod  and 


214 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


the  gun  and  of  all  the  legitimate  uses  that  these  im- 
plements imply.  It  should  be  a  cardinal  doctrine 
among  genuine  sportsmen  never  to  kill  game 
simply  for  the  sake  of  killing  it,  and  never  to 
shoot  at  a, game-bird  or  quadruped  without  the 
chance  of  killing  it  outright,  or  of  finding  it  when 
wounded. 

I  never  saw  so  few  brilliant,  nocturnal  phos- 
phorescent displays  in  the  water  as  this  year  (1883). 

There  is  a  pleasure  in  listening  to  the  sound  of 
distant  steamer-paddles.  It  is  almost  past  belief 
how  far  they  can  be  heard.  More  than  once  we  rec- 
ognized the  solid  beat  of  the  "  Republic's"  wheels 
before  she  was  in  sight.  On  one  occasion  this  same 
steamer  gave  us  a  remarkable  illustration  of  the 
interception  of  sound.  We  were  then  lying  on 
the  New  Jersey  side,  a. few  miles  below  Fort  Dela- 
ware. The  steamer  passed  down  on  the  western 

side,  perhaps  a  mile  away ;  every  stroke  of  her  pad- 

• 
dies  could  be  distinctly  heard.     Suddenly  she  ran 

behind  a  large  sailing-vessel,  and  (making  allow- 
ance for  passage  of  sound  over  the  intervening  dis- 
tance) the  sound  ceased  almost  absolutely,  to  begin 
again  at  the  proper  moment  after  she  came  out 
from  behind  the  sailing-vessel.  I  think  I  never 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


215 


before  had  so  striking  an  illustration  of  intercepted 
sound. 

It  is  astonishing  what  a  wealth  of  sounds  there 
is  about  us  in  the  night-time,  when  we  are  camp- 
ing out  in  the  forest,  or  when  we  listen  for  them 
on  the  water.  True,  there  are  some  nights,  when 
the  stillness  of  death  is  everywhere,  but  on  the 
average  night,  the  air  is  full  of  sounds,  which  we 
only  recognize  when  we  listen  for  them.  The 
rain-drops  on  the  oak-leaves,  the  stealthy  tread  of 
some  prowling  animal,  or  the  murmur  of  the  water 
as  it  comes  rippling  against  the  boat-sides  are 
all  musical  in  my  ears.  I  cannot  understand  or 
enjoy  the  music  of  Wagner:  I  am  not  sure  that 
I  ever  could  find  anything  in  it  which  would 
strengthen  me ;  but  that  of  the  rain-drops,  or  the 
murmur  of  the  water  within  a  foot  of  my  head, 
is  full  of  healthy  influences  for  me.  All  the  music 
of  the  masters  is  in  its  very  youth  compared  with 
these. 

If  one  is  only  in  the  secrets  of  nature,  he  will 
find  that  there  is  no  wind  but  has  its  own  distinct 
character.  The  south  wind  in  early  spring-time 
is  very  different  from  that  of  the  dog-days.  It 
brings  with  it  other  ideas,  and  touches  our  faces, 


2i6  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

or  plays  with  our  hair,  awakening  other  emotions. 
Then  the  east  wind  is  as  full  of  gloom  as  it  is 
of  fog.  It  darkens  and  depresses  until  the  sufferer 
no  longer  wonders  that  Holmes  inquired  whether 
it  ever  reached  Paradise.  Euroclydon  has  a  bad 
character.  But  full  of  promise  and  of  exaltation 
is  the  west  wind.  It  comes  laden  with  healing 
powers  gathered  from  all  the  plants  of  prairies  and 
of  plains,  and  these  purified  by  sifting  through  the 
hemlock  boughs  on  our  mountain-tops.  No  one 
can  mistake  that  which  comes  from  the  north.  It 
is  so  sincere  and  earnest  that,  lying  in  the  berth 
below  deck,  one  may  recognize  its  whistle  in  the 
rigging-  Ifl  homely  phrase  the  western  poet 
describes  its  doings  truly  and  pathetically  when 
he  tells  what  it  does  in  autumn, — 

"  They's  somepin  kind  o'  hearty  like  about  the  atmosphere 
When  the  heat  o'  summer's  over  and  the  coolin'  fall  is  here. 
Of  course,  we  miss  the  flowers  and  the  blossoms  on  the  trees, 
And  the  mumble  of  the  hummin'  birds  and  buzzin'  of  the  bees  ; 
But  the  air's  so  appetizin',  and  the  landscape  through  the  haze 
Of  a  crisp  and  sunny  morning  of  the  early  autumn  days 
Is  a  picture  that  no  painter  has  the  colorin'  to  mock, — 
When  the  frost  is  on  the  punkin  and  the  fodder's  in  the  shock." 

The  rapidity  of  the  tide  in  Delaware  Bay  is  a 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    217 

revelation  to  one  who  has  been  accustomed  only 
to  sailing  on  the  Chesapeake.  When  two  cur- 
rents meet,  a  well-marked  "  tide-rip"  is  produced, 
which  in  the  Chesapeake  would  certainly  be  re- 
garded as  indicating  shoal  water.  In  the  Dela- 
ware Bay,  however,  this  may  be  found  over  very 
deep  water,  as  may  be  seen  where  the  ebb  tide  from 
Salem  Creek  meets  with  that  in  the  Delaware. 
Of  course,  there  are  places  in  the  Delaware  where 
shoals  are  indicated  by  just  such  rips.  One  ap- 
pears at  certain  stages  of  the  water  on  the  bar 
between  Delaware  City  and  the  head  of  Reedy 
Island,  and  another  just  above  Cohansey  light,  on 
the  New  Jersey  side. 

Following  down  along  the  "  rip"  formed  by  the 
ebb  from  Salem  Creek,  I  was  surprised  to  find 
how  sharply  the  line  was  maintained  for  miles  be- 
low where  the  currents  making  it,  first  met.  This 
was  clearly  shown  by  the  floating  staminate  (male) 
flowers  of  the  Zizania,  or  water-rice, — the  tall  grass 
which  forms  the  mass  of  the  reed-like  vegetation 
along  the  muddy  shores  of  Salem  Creek.  No 
doubt,  a  little  later  we  should  have  found  that 
some,  at  least,  of  the  matureoT  seeds  were  being 

transported  from  their  place  of  growth  to  a  new 
K  19 


21 8  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

point  at  which  they  might  begin  a  young  colony 
of  water-rice.  It  was  a  good  illustration  of  the 
means  by  which  the  geographical  distribution  of 
plants  is  effected  now  and  has  been  for,  no  one 
knows,  how  many  centuries.  From  some  chance 
seed  the  new  island,  just  emerging  from  beneath 
the  surface,  might  receive  its  first  vegetation. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  would  probably  grow 
and  speedily  cover  the  whole  marshy  spot.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  this  water-rice  seed  had  been 
drifted  to  shores  already  occupied,  even  if  it 
reached  there  with  the  germ  in  healthy  condition, 
there  would  have  still  been  doubt  as  to  its  success 
in  obtaining  a  foothold.  It  must  then  have  con- 
tended with  the  other  occupants  of  the  soil,  and 
the  victory  would  have  been  decided  by,  first,  the 
inherent  fitness  of  each  of  the  contending  plants 
for  the  place ;  and,  second,  by  the  capacity  each 
had  for  adapting  itself  to  new  conditions  of  life  as 
they  might  arise.  (As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  seed  of 
the  water-rice,  along  the  Delaware,  is  pretty  sure  to 
be  successful.)  This  struggle  for  existence  every 
observer  knows  to  be  more  than  a  Darwinian 
dream.  It  has  been  active  ever  since  earth  be- 
came a  life-crowded  surface;  and  in  all  places 


CHESAPEAKE   AND   DELAWARE   BAYS.    219 

where  soil  and  climate  furnished  the  rations  upon 
which  the  lives  of  the  battling  armies  depended, 
the  struggle  has  been  kept  up.  What  the  floating 
flowers  of  the  Delaware  suggested,  then,  is  no 
narrow  problem  limited  to  the  waters  on  which  we 
sailed.  It  might  be  comforting  to  our  pride  if  we 
could  think  that  mankind  was  exempted  from  the 
limitations  imposed  by  this  relentless  law.  But  it 
is  all-embracing,  and  man,  as  a  link  in  the  food- 
needing  chain  of  life,  has  written  his  own  struggling 
history,  in  conquest,  over  other  living  links  in  the 
same  chain.  Our  cleared  acres  and  our  tunnelled 
mountains  are  eloquent  witnesses  of  the  contests 
we  have  had,  and  of  the  victories  we  have  won  in 
competition  with  each  other  and  with  the  soil  from 
which  our  bread  must  come.  But  high  over  the 
curse  comes  the  blessing;  the  strengthened  sur- 
vivors are  themselves  better  fitted  to  enjoy  what 
they  have  gained,  and  to  transmit  a  full  vigor  to 
those  whom  they  beget.  Natural  selection  is  in- 
flexible. Competition,  vigor,  and  perpetuity  are 
joined  in  the  eternal  order. 

Our  larger  plants  have  well-defined  geographi- 
cal areas  over  which  each  particular*  species  may 
range.  Only  a  few  are  really  cosmopolitan  in 


22O  VAC  A  77  ON  CRUISING  IN 

character.  But  this  year  I  encountered  a  small 
lichen,  growing  upon  the  trees  at  the  water's  edge, 
which,  from  some  starting-point,  has  encircled  the 
globe.  It  is  known  to  inhabit  every  continent, 
and  the  islands  of  Polynesia  as  well.  Still,  it  is  a 
wee  thing,  seldom  growing  an  inch  long,  with 
branching,  gray  or  greenish-gray  stem,  and  a  small 
golden-colored  cup  on  the  end  of  its  branches. 
Botanists  have  called  it  Theloschistes  chrysopthal- 
mus.  They  have  other  names  for  it,  but  this  one 
is  hard  enough,  so  I  will  not  allude  to  the  others. 
I  cannot  give  it  an  English  name,  for  I  do  not 
know  that  it  has  one.  This  only  shows  how  very 
little  it  has  been  noticed  by  common  folk ;  yet  it  is 
older  probably  than  any  race  of  men  on  earth,  and 
has  reared  a  thriving  colony  in  every  quarter  of 
the  globe.  We  speak  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  as  the 
greatest  colonizing  race,  but  it  seems  we  must 
rest  that  claim  upon  other  ground  than  mere  dis- 
persion, and  occupation  of  territory ;  for  this  little 
lichen  has  planted  more  colonies,  reared  more 
and  larger  generations,  and  endured  more  than 
our  noble  English  stock. 

The  particular  species  I  have  named  has  a  near 
relative,  more  dwarfed  still, — one  which  crouches 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS.    22I 

down  closely  to  the  surface  of  rock,  or  bark,  to 
which  the  winds  have  carried  its  spore  (seed),  and 
on  which  the  rain  has  nourished  its  growing  tissue. 
Almost  anything,  living  or  dead,  serves  as  a  start- 
ing-point for  its  humble  life.  I  have  it  from  the 
moss-banks  of  Unalaska,  from  the  trees  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Brunswick,  from  the  bones  of 
some  unfortunate  sailor,  whose  remains  were  found 
bleaching  on  the  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and 
from  the  wreck  of  the  cedar  boat  which  lay 
by  his  side.  I  have  gathered  this  same  species 
where  it  grew  more  than  two  hundred  feet  up  in 
air,  on  the  stones  in  the  spire  of  the  Strasburg 
Cathedral,  in  Southern  Germany.  Let  me  ask, 
What  is  the  purpose  in  creation  of  this  lichen,  so 
widely  diffused,  thriving  under  circumstances  so 
different,  resisting  the  intense  glare  of  the  sun  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  cold  of  the  polar  winter  on 
the  other  ?  Evolutionist  that  I  am,  I  can  see  in 
development  nothing  which  contravenes  Divine  in- 
tention. Say,  if  you  will,  that  I  am  sodden  in 
sentiment;  yet,  I  will  still  confess  that  I  never  see 
these  rough,  slow-growing  things  without  wishing 
to  sit  down  and  question  them  on  their  own  his- 
tory and  on  the  history  of  men  that  has  been 
19* 


222  VACATION  CRUISING   IN 

enacted  around  them.  Lichens  though  they  be, 
humble,  repulsive,  rejected  by  men,  for  all  that, 
they  have  sensibilities  so  refined  that  amid  the  at- 
mospheric impurities  where  factory  chimneys  pour 
forth  their  black  volumes  they  produce  less  fruit 
than  where  sunshine,  shower,  and  clouds  take  the 
place  of  smoke. 

These  and  the  larger  plant-wanderers  we  can 
trace  by  the  unassisted  vision ;  but  there  exists  a 
class  so  small  as  to  defy  our  poor  eyesight, — 
germs,  microscopic  in  size,  that  float  in  the  air, 
nestle  on  and  in  living  or  dead  plants,  penetrate 
into  our  lungs,  or  find  their  way  into  our  very 
blood  and  marrow,  there  to  breed  disease  which 
may  decimate  a  community.  These  are  the  true 
cosmopolites  of  the  vegetable  kingdom.  Strange 
that  the  smallest,  apparently  most  delicate,  living 
things  should  be  most  ubiquitous,  and  actually  the 
most  hardy ! 

It  is  a  strange,  dual  life  that  lichens  possess. 
Cut  them  through,  making  a  section  so  thin 
as  to  be  transparent,  and  when  you  have  placed 
this  under  a  microscope  you  will  see  two  dis- 
tinct anatomical  elements  in  their  structure, — 
first,  a  set  of  colorless,  branching,  hollow  threads ; 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


223 


and  second,  some  round  green  bodies,  whose  size 
might  be  stated  as  about  the  one-thousandth  of  an 
inch  in  diameter.  There  is  concerning  each  of 
these  elements  a  long  history :  on  the  one  part,  a 
tale  of  theft,  and  on  the  other,  one  of  servitude.* 
The  colorless  threads  are  almost  identical  with 
those  which  we  find  making  the  mould  on  our 
bread  and  cheese,  or  with  those  which  in  a  more 
compact  form  make  up  the  ordinary  mushroom. 
These  green  bodies  are  just  such  as  one  may  find 
on  cold,  damp  brick  walls,  or  occasionally  forming 
a  green  scum  on  the  surface  of  stagnant  pools.  It 
is  a  strange  marriage,  this,  between  the  colorless 
threads  and  the  green  bodies,  but  certainly,  so  far 
as  the  threads  are  concerned,  it  is  a  union  for  life. 
As  a  rule,  only  such  parts  of  plants  as  possess 
green  color  are  capable  of  making  their  own  food 
out  of  the  inorganic  elements  around  them.  The 
threads  must  be  helpless  but  for  the  green  bodies 
to  which  they  unite  themselves,  and  from  which 
they  draw  their  sustenance. 

Hence  it  appears  that  these  fungal-like  threads 

*  In  giving  this  version  of  lichen  life,  I  am  not  ignorant  of 
Mink's  researches,  but  do  not  adopt  them,  because  I  cannot  set 
aside  so  easily  the  observations  of  Schwendener  and  Stahl. 


224 


VACATION  CRUISING   IN 


cannot  live  without  the  green  algae,  for  such  the 
round  bodies  are,  though  the  latter  are  quite  capa- 
ble of  an  independent  existence.  When  did  these 
algae  begin  their  life  on  this  globe  ?  It  must  have 
been  in  early  geological  time, — so  long  ago  that 
when  we  attempt  to  reduce  the  intervening  period 
between  then  and  now  to  years,  the  mind  staggers 
under  the  effort  to  grasp  the  vast  interval.  Prob- 
ably we  never  shall  know  when  they  first  came. 
Their  tender  tissues  are  so  poorly  adapted  to 
preservation  that  they  might  have  existed  from  all 
time  and  never  have  left  a  trace  among  the  fossils 
to  testify  as  to  their  being.  If  one  is  ever  found 
here  or  there  among  the  pages  of  the  rocky 
record,  it  will  be  simply  by  rare  good  luck.  That 
they  began  life  exclusively  as  water-plants  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  Now  they  are,  in  one  form  or  an- 
other, present  everywhere  in  places  where  sunlight 
and  dampness  exist.  Often  either  the  mature  alga 
or  its  spore  is  caught  up  by  the  wind  and  carried 
away  to  a  pond,  or,  it  may  be,  to  the  limb  of  a 
tree,  or  possibly  to  a  damp  wall.  It  is  often  of  small 
importance  to  the  plant  on  which  of  these  places 
the  wind  drops  it.  The  chances  are  that  it  will 
grow,  though  to  a  certain  extent  the  character  of 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

its  growth,  its  final  shape,  may  depend  on  the  loca- 
tion which  accident  has  given  it.  Freedom  in  a  flow- 
ing stream,  or  even  space  on  a  damp  wall,  may  allow 
it  to  grow  into  a  chain  of  small  cells,  which  at  least 
serves  to  illustrate  the  first  steps  toward  a  compli- 
cated organism  ;  but  let  the  fungal  threads  seize 
upon  that  stray  cell  or  spore,  cramp  its  energy,  and 
dwarf  its  growth,  and  throughout  its  whole  career 
it  may  remain  in  the  simplest  form, — that  of  a 
single  cell.  Fed  upon  by  a  parasite,  nothing  can 
become  so  great  or  noble  as  when  master  of  its 
own  resources.  Still,  there  is  even  for  the  impris- 
oned alga  one  honor:  it  does  the  best  possible 
under  the  circumstances,  and  by  yielding  to  an  in- 
exorable fate,  produce's  the  lichen  which  in  its  own 
way  serves  many  useful  purposes.  More  than 
once  the  lichens  of  Arctic  regions  have  furnished 
food  to  starving  men.  And  habitually  they  are 
the  staple  food  of  the  Laplanders'  reindeer  in 
winter.  There  is  much  more  which  one  might 
say  even  of  so  inconspicuous  a  group  of  plants  as 
the  lichens,  all  of  which,  too,  would  be  suggested 
by  the  yellow-capped  specimen  we  found  on  the 
trees  by  the  bay-side ;  but  this  is  not  a  treatise  on 
botany. 


226  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

The  vessels  seen  on  the  Delaware  are  as  char- 
acteristic of  their  work  as  any  vehicles  seen  on 
land  can  be.  You  may  recognize  the  oyster-boats 
not  more  by  the  large  black  figures  on  their  main- 
sails, than  by  their  shoal,  sharp  character.  Then, 
here  and  there  you  meet  one  of  the  canal  schooners 
with  short  bowsprit  and  with  masts  made  to  lower. 
They  have  high,  straight  sides,  but  little  shoulder, 
and  are  about  as  hideous  models  as  one  can  see 
anywhere.  Besides  this,  they  are  dangerous  in 
heavy  weather.  There  still  linger  a  few  of  the 
sloops  built  thirty  years  ago  as  freighters.  They 
have  great  beam,  light  draught,  and  immense 
spars,  with  not  a  trace  of  the  clipper-bow.  The 
type  seems  to  be  disappearing  very  fast,  only 
lingering  in  the  form  of  sloops  destined  to  carry 
stones  or  other  equally  heavy  material.  The  hay- 
vessel,  when  you  see  her  loaded,  is  a  phenomenon. 
The  illustration  shows  one  I  found  lying  along- 
side a  "  Jersey  marsh."  A  person  might  well  ask 
whether  those  who  sailed  in  her  had  any  remem- 
brance of  what  "  centre  of  gravity"  meant.  Two 
days  after  the  picture  was  taken  she  passed  down 
Maurice  River.  Her  deck-load  of  hay  was  then  so 
high  that  the  boom  and  sail  could  just  clear  it, — 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


227 


that  is,  the  hay  was  about  twice  as  high  as  the  pic- 
ture shows.  It  was  a  threatening  evening  when 
she  went  out  into  the  bay.  Fortunately  she  found 
a  _  .iet  bit  of  water  behind  the  Egg  Island  light, 
an,  there  awaited  calmer  weather.  I  have  seen 
these  great  masses  out  where  the  water  was  so 
rough  that  I  could  hardly  help  inquiring  whether 
the  law  of  gravitation  was  suspended  in  their 
favor;  if  it  was  not,  then  what  force  kept  them 
from  capsizing?  The  disparity  in  size  between 
the  hay  and  the  vessel  was  so  great  as  to  call  to 
mind  the  Hindoo  notion  that  the  earth  was  carried 
on  the  back  of  a  tortoise. 

These  large  three-masted  schooners  which  are 
now  so  common,  but  a  few  years  back  were  almost 
a  novelty.  Coasting  appears  to  be  their  chief  oc- 
cupation, not  because  they  are  unable  to  under- 
take longer  voyages, — for  they  could  circum- 
navigate the  globe, — but  because  the  increased 
coastwise  trade  of  the  nation  has  grown  enough 
to  give  occupation  to  that  large  and  enterprising 
fleet.  At  the  same  time,  too,  our  railroads  have 
largely  increased  their  own  tonnage.  Day  after  day, 
as  we  lay  in,  or  near  Salem  Creek,  we  could  see 
the  Reading  steam  colliers  passing  up  and  down. 


228  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

Probably  there  were  on  the  average  daily  two  each 
way  that  passed  in  the  day-time.  Besides  them, 
however,  there  was  a  fleet  of  these  large  schoon- 
ers engaged  also  in  coal-carrying.  Ten  years  ago  a 
schooner  of  over  three  hundred  tons  was  regarded 
as  a  large  vessel ;  now  it  is  not  unusual  to  find 
one  three  times  that  size.  In  fact,  it  is  said  to 
be  hardly  worth  while  for  a  vessel  of  less  than  five 
hundred  tons  to  attempt  to  compete  in  the  carry- 
ing trade  to  any  important  port. 

So  far  as  we  could  see,  the  American  Line 
(proper)  of  four  ships  were  the  only  steamers 
going  to  Europe  that  carried  the  American  flag. 
Not  a  day  passed,  however,  that  several  large 
foreign  steamers,  bound  in,  or  out,  did  not  go  by. 
They  were  mostly  of  that  unpopular  class  known 
to  sailors  as  "  ocean  tramps," — that  is,  they  be- 
longed to  no  regular  line,  and  were  bound  to  no 
regular  port,  but  took  whatever  offered  and  to 
whatever  destination  it  was  consigned,  provid- 
ing it  paid.  Of  course,  they  were  mainly  Eng- 
lish. 

There  is,  in  the  abstract,  something  very  fasci- 
nating in  the  idea  of  "  ocean  tramping," — that  is, 
in  going  where  one  wills,  as  a  citizen  of  the  world. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 

But  looked  at  from  a  practical,  patriotic,  or  selfish 
stand-point,  those  same  tramps  are,  or  ought  to 
be,  to  every  American  the  objects  of  utter  abom- 
ination. 

Their  large  aggregate  tonnage  represents  just 
so  much  of  our  own  products  taken  hence  by 
others,  when  we  should  carry  most  of  it  in  our 
own  vessels.  They  represent  fearful  odds  against 
ourselves  in  any  contest  we  might  have  with  a 
foreign  power.  They  indicate  how  many  seamen 
some  other  nation  has,  and  how  few  we  soon  will 
have,  if  we  continue  to  extend  all  aid  and  comfort 
to  foreign  vessels.  They  tell  of  our  decline  as  a 
naval  power,  and  of  all  that  is  implied  in  possible 
marine  dominion. 

Aside  from  the  direct  importance  as  a  means 
of  living  to  a  considerable  portion  of  our  popula- 
tion, foreign  trading  in  our  own  ships  is  still,  and 
always  has  been,  justly  regarded  as  furnishing  a 
school  where,  in  time  of  peace,  we  should  train 
and  encourage  those  who  were  to  uphold  the 
honor  of  the  flag  on  the  high  seas  in  time  of  war. 
Even  yet,  in  an  emergency,  just  a  few  such  char- 
acters as  Paul  Jones  might  be  sharp  thorns  in  an 
enemy's  side  that  would  require  a  good  many 


230  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

vessels  to  be  kept  in  the  safe   shelter   of  home 
waters  by  a  foe. 

Finding  fault  is  a  sorry  feature  in  any  book. 
Still,  it  may  not  be  regarded  as  unpardonable  to 
ask  how  long  before  the  assembled  wisdom  of  the 
nation,  meeting  in  Washington,  can  devise  some 
means  of  encouraging  home  maritime  enterprise  ? 
The  lost  industry  and  the  lost  revenue  should  be 
restored  to  us.  It  is  probably  a  safe  political  prin- 
ciple to  act  upon,  that  every  productive  interest 
or  business  should  be  made  as  large  and  as  per- 
manent as  possible.  Passing  up  and  down  the 
Delaware,  I  see  the  great  ship-yard  of  Roach,  at 
Chester.  It  alone  has,  since  1871,  turned  out 
over  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  thousand  tons 
of  carrying  capacity  in  the  vessels  built  there. 
What  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  nation,  if  this 
and  the  other  well-known  yards  along  the  same 
stream  were  furnished  constant  employment  in 
building  vessels  for  our  own  sailors  to  carry  our 
own  produce  to  foreign  marts  ? 

Without  indorsing  or  denying  the  validity  of 
the  arguments,  I  insert  the  following  from  the 
New  York  Herald  of  December  28th,  1883.  If 
ihzfacts  are  as  stated,  they  alone  should  awaken 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


231 


the  most  serious  thought,  whatever  be  the  remedy 
required  : 

In  pursuance  of  the  same  subject  the  following  is  a  passage 
from  the  interview  with  Mr.  Grace : 

"  What  influence  has  the  tariff  on  American  shipping  ?" 
"  It  has  done  all  in  its  power  to  destroy  it.  In  1855,  75 
per  cent,  of  our  carrying  trade  was  done  in  our  own  ships. 
I  have  not  a  dollar  invested  in  shipping,  and  cannot  therefore  be 
accused  of  partiality  in  the  matter.  Well,  when  our  civil  war 
broke  out  our  merchants  in  self-defence  sold  out  or  put  their  ships 
under  foreign  flags.  When  the  war  closed  we  found  ourselves 
under  a  law  forbidding  us  to  buy  our  ships  back,  or  to  have  any 
ships  whatever  except  such  as  we  built  here  ourselves.  Our.  com- 
merce then  began  to  dwindle.  In  1867  we  had  but  34  per  cent, 
of  the  carrying  trade,  in  1878  we  had  22  per  cent.,  in  1 880  we 
had  17  per  cent.,  in  1881  we  had  16  per  cent.,  and  if  we  keep  on 
as  we  have  begun  we  will  soon  have  to  hire  foreign  vessels  to  dis- 
play an  American  ensign  for  us,  in  order  to  assure  the  world  that 
there  was  once  an  American  flag  upon  the  high  seas." 
"  Do  you  think  we  can  ever  build  ships  here  ?" 
"  Yes,  and  iron  ones,  too,  if  you  will  only  abolish  the  duties  on 
all  the  materials  that  enter  into  a  ship.  It  may  surprise  you  to 
know  that  at  this  moment  I  have  on  hand  a  contract  to  have  a 
couple  of  American  steamers  built  for  South  American  rivers. 
Now,  we  cannot  build  these  steamers  as  cheaply  as  they  can  on 
the  Clyde.  Everything  we  use  is  taxed  so  highly  that  it  would  be 
absurd  to  hope  to  do  so.  The  duty  on  hemp  and  tow,  for  instance, 
is  $20  a  ton ;  the  duties  on  chemicals  and  stuffs  that  go  into  paints 
are  from  20  to  25  per  cent. ;  iron  is  taxed  from  60  to  75  per  cent. ; 


232  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

steel,  45  per  cent,  now;  machinery  and  tools  pay  a  duty  of  45  per 
cent. ;  copper  pays  nearly  $90  a  ton  duty.  In  short,  if  you  run 
over  a  ship  from  truck  to  keelson,  you  can  hardly  touch  an  article 
that  is  not  made  dearer  by  our  protective  tariff."  * 

*  This  abstract  is  reliable  beyond  question,  and  comes  from  the 
American  of  January  26th,  1884.  The  tonnage  list  from  1874 
down  makes  a  sad  showing. 

Among  the  details  furnished  by  the  report  from  the  Bureau  of 
Statistics  upon  the  commerce  and  navigation  of  the  United  States 
for  1883  are  those  relating  to  the  ship-building  of  the  country  last 
year.  They  show  that  there  were  constructed  in  all  1268  vessels 
of  all  sorts,  with  a  tonnage  of  265,429.91  tons.  Of  this  number, 
829  \fere  sailing-  and  439  steam-vessels;  88 1  were  built  on  the  At- 
lantic and  Gulf  coasts,  91  on  the  Pacific  coast,  171  on  the  Northern 
lakes,  and  125  on  the  Western  rivers.  The  comparison  made  by 
this  showing  with  that  of  other  years  is  presented  in  the  following 
table.  It  gives  the  number  and  tonnage  of  vessels  of  all  classes, 
both  sail  and  steam,  built  in  the  United  States  in  the  years  stated : 

Years.  Number.  Tonnage. 

1874 2147  432,725 

1875 1301  297,638 

1876 1 1 12  203,585 

1877 1029  176,591 

1878 1258  235,503 

1879 1132  IQS.OSO 

l88o 902  157,409 

1881   .  ,  .    .   .   .  1108     280,458 

1882 1371     282,269 

1883 I268     265,429 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


233 


What  we  want  first  of  all  is  a  hearing  of  the 
facts  throughout  the  land ;  their  statement  should 
not  be  limited  to  Washington.  The  sooner  they 
are  everywhere  known,  the  sooner  will  a  remedy 
grow  out  of  public  pressure.  "  The  power  behind 
the  throne"  is  here,  if  anywhere,  "  mightier  than 
the  throne."  This  much  is  clear,  that  when 
there  are  so  many  foreign  vessels  engaged  in 
our  trade,  and  so  few  of  our  own,  something  is 
wrong  which  should  be  made  right. 

Aside  from  this  legitimate  discontent  with  the 
existing  condition,  on  the  nation's  account,  Phila- 
delphians  might  be  pardoned  for  much  dissatisfac- 
tion on  their  own  account.  Granting  the  fact  that 
New  York's  easy  access  to  the  ocean  has  placed 
her  ahead  of  all  competition  as  the  chief  port 
of  the  nation,  yet  as  a  great  manufacturing  city, 
whose  growth  and  prosperity  will  be  largely  meas- 
ured by  the  condition  of  the  Delaware  River, 
Philadelphia  can  hardly  be  long  contented  with 

The  whole  number  of  iron  vessels  built  in  the  United  States  in 
1883  was  35,  of  which  only  one  was  a  sailing-vessel.  These  were 
nearly  all  built  at  the  yards  along  the  Delaware, — twenty-three  at 
Philadelphia  and  Chester,  eight  at  Wilmington, — the  others  coming, 
one  from  Baltimore,  one  from  Buffalo,  and  two  from  New  York. 
20* 


234  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

the  wretched  channels  in  the  stream  between  her- 
self and  the  ocean.  A  better  idea  of  Philadel- 
phia's claims  in  this  respect  may  be  had  on  re- 
membering that  the  last  (tenth)  census  places  her 
invested  manufacturing  capital  at  $187,148,857, 
yielding  a  product  to  the  value  of  $324,342,955. 
The  only  classes  who  can  in  any  way  be  content 
with  such  narrow  water-ways  are  pilots  and  tug- 
boat owners,  and  we  are  willing  to  credit  them  with 
an  honest  desire  to  see  wider  and  deeper  channels. 
Besides  the  other  evident  signs  of  suffering  which 
Philadelphia's  commerce  shows,  comes  (at  latest 
hour)  the  rumor  that  several  of  her  tug-boats  are 
to  be  taken  (for  want  of  remunerative  employ- 
ment in  the  Delaware)  to  New  York.  It  should 
also  be  said  (in  an  undertone)  that  so  long  as  our 
government  is  willing  to  leave  New  York  Harbor 
in  its  present  defenceless  condition,  so  open  to 
foes,  it  should  be  the  more  unwilling  to  leave  the 
next  important  sea-port  so  difficult  of  access  by 
friends. 

There  was,  but  a  few  years  ago,  a  righteous  in- 
dignation throughout  the  country  over  the  vast 
sum  squandered  in  improving  inland,  unnavigable 
streams.  The  fault  lay,  not  in  the  sum  appro- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


235 


priated,  so  much,  as  in  the  use  to  be  made  of  it. 
There  are  scores  of  places  in  the  Delaware  where 
it  would,  in  the  long  run,  be  a  true  economy  to 
expend  more  than  the  most  liberal  Congress  has 
ever  granted  for  it. 

The  wrecks  inside,  or  in  sight  of,  the  Delaware 
Breakwater  are  eloquent  witnesses  to  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  what  has  been  done  there.  The  next 
generation  will  wonder  that  it  was  reserved  for 
it  to  afford  at  that  point  something  better  than 
a  snare  for  the  storm-stayed  mariner.  Shoals  and 
wrecks  have  often  gone  too  long  unbuoyed.  In 
Maurice  River  Cove,  for  a  long  time,  a  wreck, 
which  was  covered  at  high-water  and  partly  un- 
covered at  low-water,  was  left  without  anything 
to  mark  the  spot.  Yet,  during  all  that  time,  it 
was  a  danger  to  the  small  "strange  craft"  that 
might  be  in  that  neighborhood.  That  no  lives 
or  vessels  were  lost  (if  there  were  none)  on  that 
wreck  was  less  by  the  grace  of  the  government 
than  by  the  grace  of  God.  It  is  now  buoyed. 

Then,  again,  take  the  channel  for  small  craft, 
which  exists  close  by  Egg  Island  light,  into 
Maurice  River  Cove ;  there  is  nothing  to  mark 
that.  To  assume,  which  is  true,  that  but  few 


236  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

strangers  use  the  channel,  hardly  diminishes  the 
responsibility  of  the  government,  for  more  would 
use  it,  if  it  were  marked,  and  in  heavy  weather  it 
is  often  more  than  a  convenient  short-cut  into 
Maurice  River  harbor.  Our  charts  are  drawn  up 
too  largely  without  regard  to  the  wants  of  small 
craft.  The  entrances  to  unimportant  harbors 
should  be  laid  down  more  clearly  and  more  fre- 
quently than  they  are.  It  is  true  that,  from 
choice,  such  places  are  seldom  visited  by 
strangers ;  yet  it  is  also  just  as  true  that  they 
would  be  much  more  frequently  utilized  in  times 
of  danger  if  the  stranger  were  sure  how  much 
water  the  channel  of  entrance  afforded.  Those 
blocked  by  shifting  bars  could  easily  be  indicated. 
I  am  radical  enough  to  wish  that  the  most  elo- 
quent opposer  of  liberal  appropriations  in  behalf 
of  life-saving  stations,  and  of  harbor  opening  and 
buoying,  might  find  himself,  in  some  one  of  the 
many  wild  December  nights,  out  with  the  crew  of 
a  small  trading-vessel  off  the  shore  between  the 
mouths  of  the  Delaware  and  Chesapeake  Bays ; 
I  should  like,  then  and  there,  to  have  his  candid 
opinion  as  to  whether  Machipongo,  Wacha- 
preague,  Matomkin,  Gargathy,  and  Chincoteague 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


237 


Inlets  should  not  be  watched,  lighted,  and  buoyed 
in  the  best  and  most  efficient  manner  known  to 
modern  science.  Furthermore,  after  his  conver- 
sion, I  should  like,  if  he  were  an  honest  man,  to 
hear  him  make  his  plea  in  Washington  in  behalf 
of  such  and  many  other  inlets  along  the  coast 
into  which  small  craft  might  "  creep"  and  be  safe. 
The  statement  that  the  channels  leading  to  these 
inlets  shift  with  every  storm,  instead  of  relieving 
our  authorities  of  the  responsibility  of  establishing 
an  efficient  watch,  only  adds  weight  to  it. 

It  may  be  a  mere  visionary  notion,  but  I  am 
convinced  that  among  the  many,  now  unthought-of, 
applications  which  the  next  generation  will  make 
of  our  newly-acquired  knowledge  of  electricity 
will  be  to  have  buoys  lighted  by  electric  lights, 
which  will  mark  the  way  into  every  such  harbor 
on  the  coast,  making  their  entrance  thus  as  easy 
by  night  as  by  day.  If  so,  in  a  better  sense  than 
we  have  yet  understood  the  phrase,  "  the  sea 
will  give  up  its  dead." 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHO   SHOULD   GO   CRUISING. 

THERE  are  many  very  hopeful  signs  now  in  our 
social  life.  It  is  the  custom  to  look  at  the  gloomy 
rather  than  the  bright  side  of  things  ;  but,  with 
all  this,  our  pessimist  friends  must  admit  that  as  a 
nation  we  are  a  larger,  more  influential,  and  prob- 
ably a  better,  people,  than  one  hundred  years  ago. 
As  to  individuals,  the  average  longevity  has  in- 
creased notably  during  the  same  period.  These 
are  very  hopeful  indications. 

Somehow,  along  with  these  changes,  we  can  find 
other  notable  ones  in  social  and  in  moral  ideas.  In 
fact,  an  idea  must  have  something  more  than  the 
savor  of  antiquity  to  make  it  venerable  now.  If 
it  has  outlived  its  usefulness,  we  cease  to  venerate 
it.  Social  ideas  and  political  creeds  have  come 
to  be  looked  at  very  much  from  the  same  stand- 
point,— as  good  things  to  threaten  the  existence  of, 
as  soon  as  they  get  strong  enough  to  domineer. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  £AYS.    239 

I  hold  it  to  be  an  element  of  Christian  faith  that 
a  man  should  care  for  his  physical  well-being, 
and  can  never  think  of  those  old  ideas  which 
led  men  to  wrong  the  body,  to  benefit  the  soul,  ex- 
cept as  being  monstrous.  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
is  said  to  have  attributed  his  success  in  life  to  the 
fact  that  he  was  a  good  animal.  If  he  ever  made 
the  remark,  it  was  among  the  very  wisest  of  his 
utterances.  Emerson  had  hit  upon  the  same  ex- 
pression. Herbert  Spencer,  in  the  most  absolute 
cold-blood,  engendered  by  his  philosophy,  puts 
the  idea  in  still  more  distinct  and  telling  shape  : 
"  We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  '  vile  body ;'  and 
many  are  encouraged  by  the  phrase  to  transgress 
the  laws  of  health.  But  Nature  quietly  suppresses 
those  who  treat  thus  disrespectfully  one  of  her 
highest  products,  and  leaves  the  world  to  be 
peopled  by  the  descendants  of  those  who  are  not 
so  foolish."  Surely  the  above  opinions  come  from 
a  most  unorthodox  trio,  so  far  as  matters  of  faith 
could  have  been  judged  by  the  creeds  of  twenty 
years  back.  But  just  now  these  men  are  most  re- 
spectable because  they  were  among  the  pioneers 
in  the  special  ruts  in  which  our  higher  culture  and 
civilization  are  running.  During  June,  July,  and 


240  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

August  I  have  been  upon  the  water,  loitering  here 
and  there,  as  the  wind  and  weather  made  necessary, 
or  as  my  whims  suggested.  It  was  not  simply 
waste  time,  but  time  devoted  to  search  for  physical 
vigor.  And  the  result  justified  my  course.  In  my 
boyhood,  however,  the  most  familiar  moral  maxim 
concerned  the  work  which  an  unpopular  individual, 
once  an  angel,  found  for  idle  hands  to  do. 

The  cooler  nights,  as  well  as  the  matured  corn- 
blades,  which  were  yellow  and  dry,  attested  that 
the  vacation  was  over,  and  that  the  work  of  a  new 
college  year  must  begin.  All  that  remains  is  to 
take  my  boat  to  her  winter-quarters.  But  before 
doing  this,  let  us  inquire, — 

WHO  SHOULD  GO  CRUISING?  There  is  a  con- 
stantly-increasing number  of  young  and  middle- 
aged  men  who,  under  the  exactions  of  daily  duty, 
find  themselves  each  spring  physically  below  par. 
Many  of  them  cannot  afford  the  cost  of  a  pro- 
longed trip  by  the  ordinary  means  of  travel,  even 
if  it  be  undertaken  in  the  interest  of  health.  In- 
deed, it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  such  a  vaca- 
tion would  yield  the  largest  return,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  there  is  nothing  for  the  individual  to 
do,  save  to  pay  his  bills  and  be  taken  care  of.  Thus 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.     241 

the  stimulus  of  personal  activity  and  of  responsi- 
bility is  missed,  and  with  it,  also,  that  complete 
change  in  mental  occupation  which  a  cruise  is  sure 
to  afford,  if  it  be  such  as  I  have  tried  to  describe. 

The  essential  substratum  upon  which  health 
must  rest  is  muscular  exertion.  Muscular  fibre 
comes  only  when  earned.  However  valuable  as 
aids,  I  doubt  whether  all  the  tonics  of  the  shops, 
alone,  ever  created  an  ounce  of  muscle.  Cruising 
affords  not  only  the  incentive  to,  but  the  opportu- 
nity for,  healthful  exercise. 

The  trips  I  have  described  were  made  in  a  small 
vessel  (six  tons).  A  party  of,  say,  four  congenial 
companions  could  make  such,  or  more  distant  ones, 
in  a  larger  boat,  spending  a  month  in  doing  so, 
and,  after  paying  for  the  vessel,  hiring  a  captain 
and  a  cook,  purchasing  the  provisions,  still  find 
that  the  expense  for  each  man  did  not  exceed 
fifty  dollars  for  the  whole  trip.  They  could  do 
this,  I  have  said,  if  they  were  congenial  com- 
panions. If  they  were  not,  the  first  week  would 
probably  end  the  cruise.  Is  there  any  other  way 
'  in  which  so  much  health  and  pleasure  could  be 
had  for  so  small  a  sum  ? 

Probably  this  never  would  have  been  written 

L          q  21 


242  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

but  from  the  fact  that  no  one  here  has  yet  tried 
to  write  up  a  cruise  as  the  author  of  "  Rob  Roy 
on  the  Jordan"  has  done  for  England.  That  it 
was  needed  in  that  water-loving  land,  and  that 
it  was  acceptable,  is  shown  from  the  fact  that 
the  book  speedily  passed  through  several  edi- 
tions. No  such  success  is  anticipated  for  this 
effort.  It  will  have  accomplished  its  work  if  it 
stimulates  some  one  else  to  do  better. 

WHO  SHOULD  NOT  GO  CRUISING?  First,  those 
who  expect  nothing  but  comfort,  and  who  can- 
not endure  plain  living,  or  those  to  whom  monoto- 
nous drifting  one  day,  with  possibly  a  tempest- 
tossing  the  next,  is  a  greater  annoyance  than  a 
week  of  pleasant  sailing  and  free,  open-air  life  can 
compensate  for.  Second,  those  whose  education 
has  been  so  neglected  that  they  have  never  been 
taught  to  enjoy  exposure  for  the  manhood  which 
it  brings.  This  feeling  is  to  some  a  natural  gift, 
or,  if  you  prefer,  an  unconquerable  longing;  to 
others  it  must  be  an  acquisition.  Physicians  know 
that  a  very  great  trouble  they  have  in  dealing  with 
ailing  ones  is,  that  to  order  them  to  a  camp  or  to 
a  cruise,  would  be  to  make  life  so  intolerable  that 
no  good  could  come  of  it.  Hence,  then,  in  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    243 

interest  of  health,  it  is  part  of  a  liberal  education 
to  love  the  winds  and  the  waves,  as  well  as  the 
mountain-glens.  The  most  profound  thinker  of 
this  age  says,  when  in  one  of  his  lighter  moods, 
"  Exclusive  devotion  to  work  has  the  result  that 
amusements  cease  to  please ;  and,  when  relaxation 
becomes  imperative,  life  becomes  dreary  from  lack 
of  its  sole  interest, — the  interest  in  business.  Life 
is  not  for  learning,  nor  is  life  for  working,  but 
learning  and  working  are  for  life."  An  early  and 
a  retained  fondness  for  yachting  and  for  angling 
has  prolonged,  no  one  knows  how  many  years, 
Herbert  Spencer's  active,  useful  career. 

There  is  a  third  class  who  should  not  go  cruising. 
I  mean  such  as  enjoy  being  weak, — those  creatures 
to  whom  bronzed  skins  and  excessive  vitality  are 
an  abomination.  To  such  we  would  say,  Stay  at 
home,  by  all  means !  In  the  whole  world  out  of 
doors  there  is  no  place  for  you. 

"  Still  breathe  we  this  high  air  with  rapture,  still 
See  earth  dilated  to  a  palace  large, 
Roofed  with  blue  bravery  of  the  cloud-sailed  sky." 

A  fourth  class  should  be  named  as  unfit  for 
cruising, — those  who  are  confirmed  invalids,  who 


244  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

have  passed  the  point  at  which  they  can  make 
strength  faster  than  such  a  vacation,  or  such  an 
occupation,  would  use  it.  To  advise  these  to  leave 
comfortable  homes  is  a  moral  wrong  which  admits 
of  no  justification. 

Within  a  few  years  "  the  canoe"  has  awakened 
a  profound  interest  in  the  United  States.  The 
constantly-increasing  number  of  those  who  yield 
each  summer  to  the  fascination  of  the  paddle 
shows  that  there  must  be,  as  we  know  there  is, 
infinite  pleasure  in  skimming  our  inland  waters. 
Nothing  that  has  been  written  in  advocacy  of 
yachting  is  to  be  construed  as  against  "  canoeing." 
They  belong  together  as  forms  of  the  same  recre- 
ation, each  having  its  sphere,  and  each  yielding  a 
full  return  for  the  time  and  money  expended, 
providing  discretion  rules  the  individual. 

Caution  :  Cruising  in  fresh  water ;  remember  your 
quinine-bottle.  In  the  South,  whether  on  fresh  or 
salt  water y  keep  in  mind  the  same  injunction. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


245 


CHAPTER    VI. 

TO   WINTER-QUARTERS    IN   THE   CHOPTANK. 

NOTHING  more  clearly  indicates  the  unsettled 
character  of  the  human  mind  than  that  we  tire  of 
our  pleasures.  Nothing  shows  more  strongly  the 
discipline  of  life  than  the  patience  with  which  well- 
ordered  minds  toil  on,  until  the  hour  comes  when 
they  may  fairly  enjoy  the  freedom  of  doing  as  they 
will.  I  had  waited  and  worked  for  my  vacation. 
I  enjoyed  the  pleasure  it  brought  until,  sated,  I 
longed  again  for  work. 

Salt  air  and  water,  physical  labor  and  mental 
rest,  had  done  much  towards  renewing  my  youth, 
and  promised  to  do  more.  Even  a  yachtsman  may 
realize  that  life  has  duties  more  important  than 
cruising.  Autumn  was  approaching,  as  the  rus- 
set blades  of  corn  plainly  indicated.  This  meant 
work. 

On  August  27th,  when  the  tide  began  to  ebb, 

21* 


246  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

we  heaved  our  anchor  up  and  hoisted  sail.  The 
wind  was  as  fair  and  as  strong  as  we  could  wish. 
In  an  hour  the  sister-cities  of  Camden  and  Phila- 
delphia were  receding  from  view.  There  appears 
to  be  a  spell  associated  with  the  river  from  Cam- 
den  to  Chester,  so  far  as  my  sailing  is  concerned. 
Save  once,  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  had  a 
fair  wind  for  the  whole  distance ;  on  all  previous 
occasions,  it  either  died  away  entirely,  or  changed 
its  direction.  On  the  trip  I  now  write  of,  it  be- 
came weaker,  then  baffling,  coming  first  from  one 
quarter,  and  then  from  another.  Four  hours  were 
consumed  in  reaching  Chester.  So  we  drifted 
with  the  tide  until  what  was  ebb,  and  in  our  favor, 
changed  to  flood,  and  opposed  us.  With  this 
change  there  came  just  enough  of  wind,  and  from 
such  a  direction,  as  to  keep  hope  alive,  by  setting 
us  forward  very  slowly.  It  was  ten  o'clock  at 
night  before  we  were  fairly  inside  of  the  canal  at 
Delaware  City. 

Tired  and  hungry  and  sleepy,  after  a  very  has- 
tily-prepared supper,  the  crew  of  the  "  Martha"  laid 
down  to  await  daylight.  Nothing  of  ordinary 
gravity  could  have  awakened  us.  In  fact,  it  was 
not  until  next  day,  when  we  saw  how  roughly  the 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS.    247 

little  boat  had  been  used,  that  we  realized  the 
force  with  which  a  large  schooner  ran  into  the 
yacht,  while  we  slept. 

Accepting  it  as  inevitable,  I  was  glad  to  have 
my  boat  in  the  canal  again,  and  on  her  way  to  the 
Chesapeake  waters.  This  time  we  fared  rather 
better  than  when  we  came  through  en  route  for 
the  Delaware  Bay ;  though,  where  so  much  was 
changed,  I  was  rather  surprised  to  find  the  bad 
condition  the  canal  was  in  at  one  point.  Still,  to 
do  them  the  fullest  measure  of  justice  now,  I  am 
bound  to  say  the  employes  were  at  work  dredg- 
ing near  where  my  boat  found  less  water  and 
more  rock  than  safe  navigation  required.  There 
is  one  set  of  men  employed  on  the  canal  of  whom 
I  can  speak,  without  any  reserve,  as  being  kind 
and  disposed  to  render  any  service  they  could : 
I  mean  those  on  the  tug-boats.  Such,  at  least,  is 
the  statement  I  must  make  so  far  as  my  three 
trips  entitle  me  to  have  an  opinion. 

I  think  in  early  autumn  a  trip  through  the  canal 
is  far  from  uninteresting.  Between  locks — that  is, 
when  not  too  busy — there  was  much  to  interest  an 
observer.  The  air  of  comfort  and  of  prosperity 
about  the  farm-houses  was  very  marked.  The 


248  VACATION  CRUISING    IN 

dykes  and  embankments  on  the  eastern  end  sug- 
gested Holland,  save  that  the  Dutch  had  not 
covered  it  with  red-roofed  houses  and  lazy,  long- 
armed  windmills.  The  well-tilled  corn-fields  at- 

• 

tested  a  vigorous,  pushing  community,  just  as 
strongly  as  the  large  peach-orchards  suggested 
late  frosts  and  high  prices  for  their  fruit  each  re- 
turning season.  The  canal  itself  was  well  filled 
with  a  thrifty  growth  of  eel-grass.  I  have  already 
alluded  to  its  somewhat  strange  way  of  having 
the  female  flowers  fertilized  by  the  floating  male 
flowers.  This  plant  was  in  full  bloom  at  the  time 
of  my  previous  trip.  Its  graceful,  waving  leaves 
are  an  interesting  study  as  you  see  them  in  a 
moderately  swift  current. 

Out  of  the  water,  as  well  as  in  it,  were  sources 
of  enjoyment.  After  passing  Saint  George's  the 
country  became  more  hilly.  Two  centuries  of 
cultivation  had  only  changed  the  surface,  re- 
moving th*e  trees  and  leaves,  but  substituting 
smaller  growths  and  a  dense  sward.  Save  here 
and  there,  two  feet  below  the  surface,  everything 
was  exactly  as  left  by  natural  forces.  The  cuts 
made  by  the  canal  revealed  great  deposits  of 
gravel,  with  occasional  large,  water-worn  stones. 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


249 


The  very  first  glance  told  plainly  enough  that 
neither  of  these  was  made  there,  but  that  both 
had  come  as  immigrants  from  remote  parts.  So  far 
as  their  presence  is  concerned,  there  is  no  accepted 
hypothesis  which  is  not  wonderful  enough.  The 
first  chapters  of  their  wandering  were  written  far 
back  in  the  past,  and  they  were  separated  from 
their  birth-place  with  labor-throes,  under  which 
the  whole  region  must  have  groaned.  This  may 
have  been  long  before  man  appeared  on  earth. 
Whether  they  were  carried  to  the  spot  where  we 
now  find  them  by  single  icebergs,  floating  over 
what  is  now  dry  land,  or  whether  they  were  car- 
ried by  the  great  glacial  mass,  which  it  is  sup- 
posed once  overspread  the  Northern  United  States, 
is  a  question  geologists  must  determine.  Prob- 
ably if  one  could  remove  the  water  from  the  Banks 
of  Newfoundland,  we  should  find  just  such  rocks 
and  gravel.  These  are  supposed  to  have  been  car- 
ried there  by  bergs  from  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and 
thawed  loose  when  the  ice  came  into  the  water 
warmed  by  the  Gulf  Stream.  Humboldt  has  said 
"the  forces  of  nature  are  practically  illimitable." 
Nothing  illustrates  this  more  strikingly  than  an 
attempt  to  conceive  of  the  power  implied  by 


250 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


glacial  movement,  when,  over  hill  and  down  dale, 
the  vast  ice-fields,  pressed  upon  from  the  north 
swept  resistlessly  and  directly  forward  without 
regard  to  the  trend  of  the  hills  which  they  ground 
under  their  weight.  At  all  events,  be  the  explana- 
tion of  the  present  position  of  the  rocks  and  gravel 
on  the  line  of  the  canal  what  it  may,  one  thing  is 
sure :  they  suggest  travel,  cold,  and  long-ago. 

There  has  been  no  frost  since  the  peach-trees 
blossomed  in  early  spring,  yet  we  found  the  leaves 
were  changing  color  in  advance  of  the  coming 
cold.  They  were  a  study,  each  having  its  own 
characteristic  hue,  and  they  have  left  to  this  hour 
the  impressions  then  produced,  photographed  in 
my  mind.  The  leaves  have  fallen,  and  their 
tender  tissues  are  in  decay,  but  the  mental  image 
is  as  fresh  as  ever.  Thoughts  often  outlive  the 
causes  which  produced  them.  Hence  one  might 
well  suppose  that  such  '*  things  of  beauty"  are 
naturally  enough  intended  to  be  "  a  joy  forever," 
and  that  the  pleasures  of  the  mind  are  equal  in 
value  to,  and  as  legitimate  as,  those  which  spring 
from  the  product  of  the  mint.  What  besides  them 
do  we  take  with  us  at  last  ? 

The  Liquidambar,  or  sweet-gum,  foliage,  was 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    2$I 

red-brown,  the  sassafras  was  orange-red,  and  the 
tupelo  was  scarlet  Other  shades,  as  those  of  the 
.red  oak  and  scarlet  maple,  and  Ampelopsis,  were 
appearing  and  blending  with  the  more  pronounced 
ones  already  named,  to  complete  a  perfect  picture. 
Botanists  do  partly  divest  this  of  interest,  when 
they  remind  us  these  bright  colors  are  caused 
by  simply  a  worthless  residuum  in  the  leaf,  after 
all  the  important  living  colors  have  been  removed. 
This  may  suggest  that  the  summer's  work  is 
past,  but  then  fancy  only  stretches  forward  to 
another  spring,  when  warmth  and  shower  will 
deck  the  same  trees  again,  after  the  rest  which 
autumn  colors  promise.  I  do  not  care  to  reduce 
life  to  mere  chemical  and  vital  force.  It  robs 
being  of  love,  of  poetry,  of  personal  protection, 
and  substitutes  simply  the  chilling  reign  of  objec- 
tive law.  After  all,  in  whatsoever  new  channel 
of  evolution  we  start,  or  however  far  we  drive 
back  the  bars  which  shut  out  the  sunlight  of  ulti- 
mate truth,  we  do  inevitably  come  at  last  to  the 
unknowable  and  the  infinite.  If  men  are  content 
with  the  comfort  they  derive  from  considering  these 
in  terms  of  physical  force,  I  can  find  no  fault  with 
them,  though  I  can  claim  that  my  dim  notion  of 


252  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

that  power  as  a  spirit  is  no  less  real  than  theirs, 
which  regards  it  as  force. 

The  flowering  fern  (Osmunda  regalis),  or,  as  it  is. 
better  called,  royal  fern,  mingled  its  delicate,  peer- 
less foliage  with  that  of  the  wild  grape  as  they 
grew  along  the  narrow  line  where  land  and  water 
met.  The  vegetation  on  the  canal  banks  taught 
me  some  lessons  of  interest  concerning  the  dis- 
tribution of  plants.  Quercus  falcata,  or  Spanish 
oak,  was  no  longer  rare,  though  in  Chester  County 
(in  Pennsylvania),  but  a  few  miles  to  the  north,  it 
is  not  common.  The  Liquidambar  told  the  same 
tale.  Larger  generalizations  still,  come  to  light, 
when  we  read  the  history  of  the  Scotch  broom 
(Cytisys).  This  plant  is  a  native  of  the  sandy 
woods  of  Western  Europe.  How  came  it  here  ? 
Clearly,  it  was  introduced  by  human  agency  along 
the  lines  of  human  traffic.  It  is  a  low,  dark-green 
shrub,  with  a  profusion  of  angular,  slender,  wiry 
branches,  which  compensate  for  lack  of  leaves. 
Its  chief  glory  is  the  mass  of  large,  bright-yellow 
flowers,  which  spring  out  from  slender  foot-stalks. 
On  the  southern  bank  of  the  canal  it  grew  in  all 
its  rugged  luxuriance.  At  Yorktown,  too,  it  was 
about  all  that  remained  of  British  origin  after 


CHESAPEAKE  AND   DELAWARE  BAYS. 


253 


Cornwallis  left.  It  is,  however,  too  firmly  fixed  on 
the  dry,  gravel  hill-sides  there,  ever  to  abandon  the 
position.  Again  I  saw  it  flourishing  on  the  gravel 
banks  where  the  railroad  cuts  had  been  made 
above  Chester,  in  Pennsylvania.  In  all  these 
places  it  has  come  to  remain,  and  to  win,  by  its 
superior  hardiness,  a  victory  over  our  native  plants. 
It  is  one  of  the  naturally-selected  which  succeed 
in  the  struggle  for  existence.  Just  so,  too,  the 
wild  carrot  and  the  ox-eye  daisy  have  done.  But 
there  is  some  principle  of  justice  in  the  retribu- 
tion our  American  weeds,  such  as  the  common 
fleabane  (Erigerori),  are  wreaking  in  European 
soil. 

There  is,  however,  a  broader  meaning  than  ap- 
pears on  the  surface  in  these  plant  colonies,  which 
become  so  strong  in  new  soil  as  to  crowd  out 
the  original  flora.  Its  resemblance  to  human  mi- 
gration and  conquest  is  too  plain  to  escape  notice. 
Races  of  men  and  plants  both  are  invigorated  by 
change  of  home.  Rotation  of  crops  and  rotation 
of  races  are  associated  in  thoughtful  minds. 

One  might  be  expected  to  moralize  when  out 
on  the  Chesapeake,  for  there  is  inspiration  in  the 
region ;  but  think  of  ethics,  or  equity,  or  anything 


254 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


else  good  or  grand,  rising  out  of  the  muddy  waters 
of  a  canal !     It  is  absurd. 

No  excuse  is  needed  for  introducing  the  ba- 
rometer again,  as  those  who  go  down  in  small 
ships  cannot  be  too  well  prepared,  or  too  fully 
warned.  When  we  left  Philadelphia  on  Monday 
morning  it  stood  in  the  cabin  of  the  "  Martha"  at 
30.35  inches.  On  Tuesday  morning,  as  we  left  the 
canal  at  Chesapeake  City,  it  registered  30.25.  The 
wind,  which  for  a  few  hours  had  blown  from  the 
east,  became  again  unsettled, — more  so,  even,  than 
on  the  previous  day.  We  did  succeed  in  getting 
down  Back  Creek  into  Elk  River,  but  with  much 
difficulty.  What  was  surprising  enough  was  that 
in  the  open  water,  as  we  approached  the  bay,  the 
wind  was  more  baffling  than  in  the  river.  Most 
of  the  time  it  came  from  the  northeast.  In  an  in- 
stant our  sails  would  be  taken  "  aback"  by  a  west- 
erly wind.  For  two  hours  we  sailed,  first,  "  on  the 
wind,"  then  free ;  then  we  had  to  trim  our  sails  to 
meet  the  wind  as  it  "  bounced  out  upon  us"  from 
some  new  quarter.  At  one  P.M.  we  were  off  Sassa- 
fras River.  The  barometer  was  still  lower  than 
in  the  morning.  It  now  was  beyond  doubt  that  a 
storm  was  brewing.  Still  Pond  and  Worton  Creek 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


255 


were  soon  passed,  both  tempting  harbors;  but 
we  were  sailing  against  time,  and  desirous  of 
making  as  speedy  a  trip  as  possible. 

The  wind  was  now  strong,  steady,  and  from  the 
east,  or  possibly  east-northeast.  Hence,  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  follow  the  eastern  shore  down,  and 
to  abandon  the  idea  of  going  into  Magothy  harbor 
for  the  night.  So  long  as  we  had  an  off-shore 
wind,  it  was  of  small  moment  how  hard  it  blew. 
By  the  time  we  reached  Colchester  Beach  two 
large  schooners  that  had  been  chasing  us  all  day 
passed  us,  on  their  way  south.  They  were  carry- 
ing sail  enough  to  crowd  their  scuppers  under. 
My  own  little  boat  was  fairly  staggering  from  the 
canvas  we  made  her  carry.  She  never  showed  to 
better  advantage.  Every  boat,  like  every  man, 
has  an  individuality.  I  had  become  acquainted 
with  mine,  and  whatever  was  in  her  I  was  by 
this  time  able  to  get  out.  Night  caught  us  as  we 
crossed  the  mouth  of  Chester  River,  and  the  wind 
then  had  moved  more  towards  the  south,  so  that 
we  were  obliged  to  take  in  some  of  the  sheet. 
This,  with  the  rough  water  in  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  delayed  us  greatly.  But  we  held  our  course 
down  the  eastern  shore.  By  nine  P.M.  Kent  Island 


256 


VACATION  CRUISING  IN 


light  became  visible,  and  then  we  had  a  safe  guide. 
It  furnished  a  striking  illustration  of  the  rotundity 
of  the  earth :  when  we  stood  up,  it  was  plainly 
visible;  when  we  sat  down,  the  light  could  not  be 
seen.  Clearly,  then,  the  height  of  a  man  made  the 
difference  by  removing  the  intervening  obstacle. 
Two  hours  later  Sharp's  Island  light  furnished 
another  illustration  of  the  same  thing. 

From  Kent  Island  light  we  had  a  tedious  beat 
in,  over  the  bar  and  "  sunken  island,"  to  a  com- 
fortable harbor  near  Poplar  Island.  We  had  to 
feel  our  way  through  the  intense  darkness,  and  it 
was  well  towards  midnight  before  we  came  to 
anchor.  In  daytime  this  harbor  is  easily  reached, 
and  I  am  surprised  that  so  few  of  our  yachtsmen 
in  light-draught  boats  frequent  it.  I  have  always 
found  it  a  safe  harbor  in  any  weather. 

Our  run  for  the  day,  after  leaving  the  canal,  was 
about  seventy  miles. 

By  five  A.M.  we  were  up  and  off.  The  fog  was 
as  dense  as  it  well  could  be.  Fortunately,  we  had 
our  bearings,  and  ran  through  the  narrow  channel 
between  the  mainland  and  the  island  without 
trouble.  The  tide  at  first  was  against  us,  but  it 
turned  as  we  entered  the  Choptank.  It  was,  how- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS. 


257 


ever,  a  clear  "  beat"  from  the  mouth  of  the  river 
up  to  Cambridge,  which  we  reached  about  one 
P.M.  The  barometer  then  stood  at  30.15. 

Hardly  were  our  sails  down  and  everything 
made  snug  before  the  threatened  storm  burst.  It 
reached  us  mainly  as  rain ;  elsewhere  it  came  as 
wind. 

Here,  then,  is  the  lesson  so  well  known  to  me- 
teorologists, but  which  I  wish  more  and  more  to 
impress  on  my  amateur  friends,  that  whether  above 
or  below  the  mean,  at  the  sea-shore,  when  it  starts 
to  go  down  rapidly,  a  "falling  barometer"  means 
atmospheric  disturbance,  either  wind  or  rain. 

This  storm  was  general.  And  I  here  insert  two 
newspaper  notices  to  show  it.  The  first  is  taken 
from  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger  of  September 
1st: 

THE   LATEST  NEWS. 

There  was  a  violent  storm  on  the  Great  Banks  of  Newfound- 
land, on  Sunday  last,  which  drove  hundreds  of  dories  away 
from  their  trawls.  It  is  estimated  that  100  dories  and  80  men 
were  lost.  Scores  of  the  dories  were  capsized,  and  the  ocean 
was  strewn  with  wreckage. 

The  second  extract  is  from  the  Philadelphia 
Evening  Bulletin  of  August  3<Dth  : 

r  22* 


258  VACATION  CRUISING  IN '' 

FIERCE  WINDS. 

THE  EXPERIENCES   OF  A  STEAMER   IN  A  CYCLONE. 

The  New  York  Tribune  of  this  morning  says  :  "  The  steamer 
'  Britannia,'  Captain  Jauffret,  from  Marseilles,  with  a  cargo  of  fruit 
to  Seager  Brothers,  arrived  at  Prentice's  stores,  Brooklyn,  yester- 
day, with  her  sails  and  sail-covering  carried  away  and  her  boats 
badly  damaged,  in  consequence  of  a  cyclone  which  struck  the 
vessel  on  August  25th,  in  latitude  38  deg.  15  min.,  longitude  63 
deg.  10  min.  Captain  Jauffret  said  of  his  experience, — 

" '  I  never  before  encountered  such  a  storm.  At  8  P.M.  on 
August  24th  the  atmosphere  was  calm,  though  heavy,  and  the  ba- 
rometer stood  at  30.2.  The  wind  was  southwest,  but  towards 
morning  it  shifted  to  south.  I  ordered  all  sails  set,  as  I  did  not 
anticipate  danger.  At  6  A.M.  the  next  day  the  sky  began  to 
darken,  and  the  barometer  at  7  A.M.  had  fallen  to  29.4.  Half  an 
hour  later  a  terrific  gale  suddenly  struck  us  with  the  force  of  a 
vast  volume  of  steam  suddenly  let  loose,  carrying  the  sails  away 
and  badly  damaging  the  boats'.  The  sky  became  black,  and  the 
heavens  and  the  water  seemed  to  mingle  together.  We  could  not 
see  ten  feet.  We  were  thrown  into  a  pitchy  night  in  almost  a 
moment  of  time.  The  men  lashed  themselves  to  the  ship,  and  the 
35  passengers  awaited  the  result  in  comparative  calm.  Indeed, 
officers  and  passengers  both  acted  with  wonderful  coolness.  The 
vessel  was  placed  under  full  steam,  but  this  had  no  effect.  She 
was  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the  elements.  The  wind  seemed 
to  come  from  every  direction  at  will,  the  water  swirled  over  us, 
and  the  steamer  was  carried  around  with  them.  There  was  a 
terrific  rumbling  at  the  same  time,  which  did  not  resemble  any- 
thing I  had  heard  before.  In  the  mean  time  the  rain  fell  in  tor- 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE   BAYS.    259 

rents.  Indeed,  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  powers  of  earth  and  air 
had  combined  to  produce  the  most  disastrous  effect.  The  light- 
ning flashed  vividly  and  appeared  to  leap  from  the  waters  to  the 
clouds  in  a  most  erratic  manner.  The  cyclone  passed  away  as 
suddenly  as  it  had  come,  the  sky  began  to  brighten,  and  the  heavy 
sea  fell  away.  In  the  height  of  the  storm  one  of  the  marble  slabs 
of  the  sideboard  in  the  saloon  was  detached,  and  this  struck 
Joseph  Modul,  the  chief  steward,  inflicting  injuries  from  which 
he  died  on  the  next  day.  He  was  buried  at  sea.  The  boatswain 
had  two  of  his  ribs  broken,  but  is  about  now.  The  rest  of  the 
voyage  was  uneventful.' 

"  The '  Britannia'  is  of  1838  net  tons  burden,  and  she  has  a  double 
bottom  and  double  sides.  For  this  reason  Seager  Brothers  account 
for  her  standing  the  storm  so  well.  She  had  6000  boxes  of  fruit 
as  cargo,  and  was  only  in  ballast  trim." 


August  2Qth  will  long  be  remembered  at  At- 
lantic City  as  the  date  of  a  fearfully  destructive 
tidal-wave. 

During  our  fastest  sailing  at  night,  on  our  way 
down,  we  would  occasionally  run  over  a  jelly- 
fish, which  became,  under  the  irritation,  a  beau- 
tiful ball  of  phosphorescent  light.  It  is  well 
known  that  this  light,  which  is  so  striking,  de- 
pends upon  a  variety  of  animals.  Among  the 
most  perfect  producers  of  it  are  the  so-called 
Noctilucae, — microscopic  animals  which,  when  the 


26o  VACATION  CRUISING  IN 

water  is  agitated  by  an  oar,  will  leave  behind  the 
blade  a  blue  or  silver  streak,  or  reveal  themselves 
in  bright  drops  of  the  same  color,  as  they  fall 
from  the  lifted  oar.  In  the  waters  about  Cape 
Cod  I  have  often  seen  this  condition  of  the  water 
more  marked  than  I  ever  observed  it  in  Chesa- 
peake Bay.  As  a  rule,  the  phosphorescence  of 
the  water  is  greater  in  warm  than  in  cold  lati- 
tudes, which  fact  Darwin  attributes  to  the  greater 
abundance  of  life  in  the  tropical  than  in  the  polar 
seas.  In  some  instances,  however,  he  thought  it 
came  from  particles  of  decaying  organic  matter, 
and  that  the  ocean  was  thus  purifying  its  waters. 
The  words  of  Humboldt  combine  truth  with 
poetry:  "...  So  also  in  the  torrid  zones, 
between  the  tropics,  the  ocean  simultaneously 
develops  light  over  a  space  of  many  thousand 
square  miles.  Here  the  magical  effect  of  light 
is  due  to  the  forces  of  organic  nature.  Foaming 
with  light,  the  eddying  waves  flash  in  phospho- 
rescent sparks  over  the  wide  expanse  of  waters 
where  every  scintillation  is  the  vital  manifestation 
of  an  invisible  animal  world." 

******** 
This  ended  the  cruising  of  the  "Martha"   for 


CHESAPEAKE  AND  DELAWARE  BAYS.    26l 

the  season.  The  stanch  little  sloop,  now  laid 
up  for  the  winter  in  Cambridge  harbor,  awaits 
new  duties  in  the  coming  season, — 1884. 

Who  that  reads  Tarn  o'  Shanter  can  fail  to 
see  an  overflowing  .genius  in  every  line?  Burns 
must  have  been  placed  among  the  poets,  though 
he  had  written  nothing  save,— 

"  But  pleasures  are  like  poppies  spread, 
You  seize  the  flow'r,  its  bloom  is  shed ; 
Or  like  the  snow  falls  in  the  river, 
A  moment  white,  then  melts  forever ; 
Or  like  the  borealis  race, 
That  flit  ere  you  can  point  their  place ; 
Or  like  the  rainbow's  lovely  form 
Evanishing  amid  the  storm." 

Though  every  idea  there  is  a  genuine  reflec- 
tion from  nature  which  inspired  the  poet,  still, 
when  I  look  back  over  my  three  months  of  quiet 
cruising,  those  glowing  lines  do  not  express  the 
facts  to  me.  True,  the  pleasures  departed  with 
the  days,  but  the  memory  of  them  remains  as 
part  of  me ;  and  is  as  truly  a  mental  treasure  to 
me,  as  if  derived  from  the  pages  of  any  author. 


262    •  VACATION  CRUISING. 

Far   more  real  and  full  is  the   stately  verse  of 
Tennyson, — 

"  But  in  my  spirit  will  I  dwell, 
And  dream  my  dream,  and  hold  it  true ; 
For  tho'  my  lips  may  breath  '  Adieu !' 
I  cannot  think  the  thing  «  Farewell !" 


THE   END. 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


JH+T* 


D 


JANS   '65 


LD  21-100m-2,'55 
(B139s22)476 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


re  201  is 


M315976 


